


Watch it Burn

by perfectlyrose



Series: Into the Fire [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Criminals, Alternate Universe - Human, F/M, Romance, bank robbers au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-27
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-01-21 00:35:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 50,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1531469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectlyrose/pseuds/perfectlyrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They always leave a calling card after a robbery. On the back of the card, written in flowing, gold script are the names the world knows them by: “The Doctor and the Bad Wolf.” Bank robbers AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The majority of this story is still being written but this is its beginning, the inspiration. We're going to go backwards and find out how they got to this point before moving forwards. So this is essentially a prologue. Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!
> 
> unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing of Doctor Who. I am just playing with the characters because they play with my emotions.

_**TEAM TARDIS STRIKES AGAIN**_  
  
That's the headline that greets major cities across the world on a Wednesday morning in January. The bank robbing duo had cleaned out a major bank in Chicago overnight in their normal style. The authorities have no idea what to do about them or how to catch them. No one even knows their target has been hit until someone arrives to open the bank the next morning and finds their business cards. One is always taped to the front door, a second left on the bank manager's desk.  
  
In the middle of the ivory card is an embossed blue police box. Underneath that, also in blue, are the words "Team TARDIS." The card has always baffled the authorities who have no idea how the outdated police box plays in, except to possibly taunt the actual police. They have no idea what the hell "TARDIS" stands for since it is not a word that anyone has ever encountered before. The best linguists in the world have taken a look at it and offered no solutions beyond the obvious- that it was an acronym whose meaning remained a mystery.  
  
On the back of the card, written in flowing, gold script are the names the world knows them by: "The Doctor and the Bad Wolf."  
  
Really, they're kind of celebrities even though no one knows who they are or what they look like. Team TARDIS has robbed banks in major cities all over the world and there never seems to be a rhyme or reason behind where they hit. There will be months between one strike and the next and then two within two weeks. The public is fascinated with the atypical thieves. They're bank robbers, yes, but they don't actually keep the money they steal. As far as the police can tell, they keep enough to live and travel on but that's it. About a week following the robbery, a portion of the money is given back to the bank along with a list of the holes in their security. The Doctor and the Bad Wolf are thorough, listing all the security weaknesses they exploited as well as the ones they noticed but didn't actually use. The rest of the money mysteriously appears in the accounts of various charities or families in need around London or New York or whatever city they happen to be in. The authorities can't even reclaim the money from the charities because while it is obvious that the money came from the bank robbery, nothing can be traced or proven.  
  
It's assumed that they hail from the UK since their first documented robbery was in London and the police box emblem they use on their calling card is also distinctly British. It's been five years since that first robbery and the police are no closer to catching them now than they were in the frenzied aftermath of the first hit. They never left any evidence, no trace that could lead back to who they actually were. They wouldn't admit it to the press but those who have investigated know that the only way these robberies will ever stop is if the Doctor and the Bad Wolf get bored.

\--------------------------------------------  
  
The police don't know how right they are. The Doctor, also known as John Smith, and the Bad Wolf, Rose Tyler, rob banks for the adrenaline rush. There's more to it than that, of course; the Robin Hood element of their thefts being high on that list. But to the two of them, the rush of a successful heist cannot be matched by anything. The anticipation, the buildup as they plan out every moment, it all culminates in one night of success. John and Rose barely make it back to wherever they're staying before clothes start coming off. It might have been almost six years since their association began but the sizzling tension between them has not faded one iota. John has her backed up against the wall as soon as they're through the door of their temporary flat, mouth on her neck, hips pushing into hers. Her hands latch onto his ears and pull him up to her mouth and they laugh into their kiss, giddy with their success and relief and just how lucky they are that they found each other.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this says bank robbers AU and we will actually get to bank robbing at some point, I promise. But first we're going back to the beginning and finding out how Rose and the Doctor meet and become partners in crime. We will see the Doctor in the next chapter. Unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine.

It's hard to say when John Smith and Rose Tyler became aware of each other's existence. The community of criminals in London wasn't a particularly tightknit group and they ran in different circles. John was mainly a hacker although he did engage in thievery if the occasion called for it. Rose was a thief and a grifter. She could work people like John could work computers. Whispers here and there carried a name and praise of a job well done, but nothing flashy that stuck in the memory; the mark of a good career criminal really. They could have continued on in this fashion indefinitely if a disaster hadn't caused their worlds to collide.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Jack! Slow down, I just woke up." Rose stretched as she sat up in bed, mobile pressed to her ear and blonde hair sticking out at all angles around her face. "What's wrong?" She asked through a yawn. Dealing with any sort of conversation before tea was always a challenge and when it was a conversation after only three hours of sleep the only thing that kept Rose from threatening violence was the panic in her friend's voice.

"They stole my plans, Rose. They came in here and took all of my programs and diagrams and notes, wiped my computers, found the backup and wiped that too. Two years of work, gone! And when my employer figures out it's all gone, I'm going to be dead. And I mean that literally." The highly agitated American's voice was shaking, rage and fear mixing in equal parts as he relayed the news.

"Who took them? You just keep sayin' 'they,'" Rose asked, trying to keep the hint of frustration out of her voice.

"The Agency. The Agency took them."

"Oh shit." Rose raked a hand through her hair as she tried to process all the information Jack had just given her.

The Agency was serious business. No one knew exactly who ran it but they had shown up five years ago, set up shop, and now had their hands in every pie in London's criminal world. If a big job went down, the Agency knew about it and demanded a cut of the profit in return for not reporting to the authorities. No one crossed them, or rather, no one crossed them and lived to tell the tale. Rose had personally always made sure that the jobs she pulled were small enough to not be on the Agency's radar.

Captain Jack Harkness was an enigma for all that he was one of Rose's best friends. They'd met when she'd lifted his wallet two years ago and he had followed her back to her flat to ask for it back. Well...also to try and charm her into bed but that was Jack; tall, dark, handsome and just oozing charm and sex. Rose had been too flustered at getting caught to even consider shagging him, no matter how good-looking  he was. To cover the embarrassment (and to distract him from talking about sex) Rose had demanded to know how he had followed her without her noticing. Jack laughed at her and made a deal that he would teach her how to spot a tail if she helped him settle into London. And so an unlikely friendship was born. Rose never found out much about his mysterious "employer," only that they were apparently very rich, very powerful, and very well connected. If Rose was being completely honest, she was never even sure what Jack was working on for his employer either. He was extremely tightlipped about it and had given no indication that it was important enough to garner the Agency's attention.

Regardless of his secrets, the American conman was always willing to lend a helping hand to Rose. He also never stopped trying to get her into bed with him but it had long since become playful banter between them instead of an actual attempt on Jack's part. It was rare for them to have a conversation that wasn't laced with innuendo and the last time Rose had heard him sound so serious, someone had been in danger of losing their life, and if the Agency was really behind this theft then the loss of life was definitely a possibility.

"Yeah, shit doesn't even begin to sum this up. I can't let them have those plans, Rose. I have to get them back."

"Jack," Rose began, her tone cautious, "You're not a thief. You're a conman. And you can't run a con on the Agency, especially not when they're going to be expecting you. Obviously you're already on their radar if they knew to nick your plans."

"I have to get them back some way. The Agency having those plans is bad news. Like disaster on a global scale, bad news." Jack's voice held an edge of desperation, something Rose had never heard from the suave captain. Usually he was the consummate conman and had his emotions in tight control, ready to deploy whatever expression or attitude was necessary to get the job done. Hearing him this close to the edge was unnerving.

"Alright, so you've got to get them back. Doesn't mean you have to do it yourself. They're going to expect you to try and charm your way in and will have planned for it. They know your tricks, so the security around the plans is going to be tailored to your particular set of skills." Rose tucked the phone between her ear and her shoulder as she filled the kettle. This problem required caffeine. "You're gonna need to hire someone with different talents and a willingness to take on the Agency." She hummed as she thought, this was exactly the kind of puzzle she enjoyed trying to figure out. It required knowing who would have the skills to steal the plans, a fairly populated list, and who had the right temperament to actually do it. The second requirement was much trickier, especially since Jack's problem involved the Agency.

"Christine de Souza," Rose said finally after mentally discarding most of the thieves she knew of and fixing her cup of tea. "Sorry, Lady Christine de Souza might be up for it. She wouldn't mind leaving London for a bit after pulling the job to wait for the heat from the Agency to back off. And they wouldn't be expecting her since it's well known that the two of ya had that big spat at whatever that social event was a few months back." Rose stopped, realizing that Jack hadn't said a word. "Jack? You still there?"

"Yeah, and I have an idea." Rose could practically hear the gears turning in Jack's head over the phone.

"No, I know that tone, Jack. That's the tone you use when you're trying to convince me that your crazy plan isn't as crazy as I think it is. That tone never turns out well for me."

"That's cause you're a sucker for crazy plans. But hear me out." Excitement had replaced the desperation in Jack's voice. He had a plan now, one he knew would work if he could get the players on board. And if there was one thing Captain Jack Harkness was good at, it was convincing people to do what he wanted.

"You're completely right that the Agency is going to be expecting me and that I'm no thief but I'm going to have to hire someone I trust and Christine de Souza does not fit the bill. She'd probably get in, steal the plans and then sell them back to the Agency instead of giving them to me."

Rose cocked her head to the side, considering. "Yeah, she probably would. Who do you have in mind then?"

"You."

Rose froze with her cup of tea halfway to her lips. "You're joking." Jack didn't answer. "You're havin' me on, yeah? Jack?"

"I'm completely serious, Rosie. You're the perfect person for the job. Not only are you one of the best active thieves in the city, if not all of Europe," he stopped when Rose made a noise of protest. "Don't argue with me, I've seen you work before and it's true."

Rose made a mental note to ask when he'd seen her work. She'd never worked a thievery job with him before. She'd run a couple of cons with him but that was it.

Jack was already continuing to lay out his reasons. "Not only that, the Agency has no idea who you are. You've managed to stay off their radar by not pulling any big heists so they don't have any idea that a thief of your caliber is unaccounted for in the city. And on top of all that, I know I can trust you."

"Jack, I'm flattered by your confidence in me, I am, but I don't think I can do a job that big. Not when there's so much on the line and definitely not on my own. You'll probably need a team of some sort to pull this off now that I think about it, and you know I always work alone." Rose rambled, trying not to panic at the mere thought of trying to do a job of this magnitude herself. If someone pulled it off,  it would go down as one of the biggest accomplishments in the London crime world in decades. It was practically a suicide mission.

"You know I don't exaggerate anyone's talents. You have the necessary skills to pull this off. You're probably the only one who could do it." Jack sounded deadly serious and Rose's heart sank as she began to see the inevitable outcome.

She was going to rob the Agency.

God help her.

"I can't do it alone, Jack. I don't have the tech skills to get around the security systems they have in place there."

"You already know what security systems they have in place?" he questioned, surprised.

Rose mumbled something about wanting to be prepared if the Agency ever kidnapped her and Jack laughed, the sound doing wonders to lift both of their moods.

"I can get someone to work the tech. In fact, I know just the person. He's a hacker and does a bit of thievery as well. Should be perfect and he owes me a favor," he mused.

"Is a favor really enough to convince someone to take on the Agency?"

"Oh, he would take on the Agency without me calling in my favor. I'll have to do some convincing to bring him around to working with a partner though."

Rose groaned. "You're going to make two people who normally work alone try and find a dynamic to take down one of the most difficult targets in London?"

"That's exactly what I'm going to do. The Agency won't know what hit them. I'll call you sometime tonight once I've talked to the hacker." Before giving her a chance to protest, Jack rang off leaving Rose staring at her mobile with a look of disbelief.

Shaking her head, she took a large gulp of tea and put the kettle back on. It had certainly been one hell of a morning.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and John meet for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I know this says bank robbers AU and we will actually get to the bank robbing at some point, Unbeta’d so all mistakes are mine.

Rose ran a hand over her hair as she stepped into a posh London restaurant, straightening the long strands the wind had mussed on her way in. Reflexively she tugged on her dress as well, nervous habits that she’d never quite been able to kick getting the best of her. Jack had called her back this afternoon and told her to be here at 8 to meet the hacker he’d mentioned. After a day spent reviewing the Agency’s blueprints and security systems, Rose had slipped on her favorite black dress and red heels and made her way to the restaurant downtown. She let her hips sway a bit more than normal as she approached the maître d’ and inquired about the table Jack had booked under one of his aliases.

So she was a bit nervous about taking on the Agency, she would have to be crazy not to be. But _this_ , this playing of people, whether they be the maître d’ who had stolen about three peeks down her cleavage in their 45 second interaction or the still unknown hacker, this was definitely in her wheelhouse. She had handled her fair share of computer geeks and if this one Jack had described as “perfect” (that was all he’d tell Rose, refused to give her a name or description of the man she would be working with) was anything like the majority of them, then half her mission would be accomplished as soon as he caught sight of her in this dress. If she was going to work with someone, she was definitely going to be the one in charge. The easiest way to ensure that situation was to establish dominance tonight and Rose was not above using her physical assets to do so. The corners of her lips lifted in a smirk as she let a waiter lead her to the table and she felt eyes following her. It was a rather spectacular dress, if she did say so herself.

The waiter came to a stop at a table in the back corner. Rose could not help the sharp intake of breath at the sight that was waiting for her there. This was not a normal computer geek. Her eyes wandered over the man lounging at the table as she waited for her chair to be pulled out. His face was all sharp angles and prominent features; big ears, big nose, and a pair of piercing blue eyes that were sizing her up. The combination shouldn’t be attractive, Rose told herself, but it undeniably was. An inch or so of brown hair graced the top of his head and Rose wondered if it was as soft as it looked. Catching that thought, she shook herself out of her mental wanderings. This was a job, not a date. Clad in a black leather jacket over what appeared to be a maroon t-shirt stretched tight across a broad chest and wearing a pair of black jeans, he did not fit in with the rest of the diners in the restaurant, dressed to the nines, or with her mental image of a hacker

“So you’re the one that our mutual friend wants me to break my no-working-with-partners rule for,” the man’s voice came out in a rough Northern burr and he swept his eyes over her again, an unimpressed look on his face.

Rose fought back a shiver, feeling the gaze like a physical caress. He might be unimpressed with her as a potential partner in crime but there was heat in his gaze. Apparently the dress had achieved its intended effect after all. Letting her earlier smirk creep back on her face, Rose leaned forward and rested an elbow on the table top, providing him with a view down her dress if he chose to take it. “Rose Tyler, at your service,” she purred as soon as she saw his eyes flicker downward.

“Can I get you two anything to drink?” The waiter stepped up to the table, oblivious to the tension crackling between the two patrons. Rose picked a red wine off the list at random and ordered a glass and her companion asked for the same. She watched him listen to the waiter rattling off the night’s specials before finally leaving and then caught his eye.

She relaxed back in her chair, keeping her eyes locked with his. “So, who are you?”

He mirrored her position, leaning back from the table. She could hear the creak of leather as he crossed his arms across his chest. “John Smith.”

“Seriously?” The posh accent Rose had been affecting disappeared and her rougher London accent came through instead in her shock. “Come off it, no one’s actually named John Smith.”

“Think I know my own name, thanks.” John’s voice was dripping with condescension.

“I think you think you know lots of things,” Rose shot back, annoyed. “If you want to give me an alias that’s your choice, just know that if we’re going to work together you’re gonna have to trust me.”

This time it’s John who leans forward, propping his elbows on the white tablecloth. “That’s where you’re mistaken, Rose Tyler,” he wrapped his voice around her name deliberately, tasting every syllable. “I don’t have to do anything, especially not trust you.” He leaned back again and the corners of his mouth turned up the slightest bit, the aura of danger he had been exuding dissipating as quickly as it had appeared. “Don’t trust anyone, me.”

Rose caught her bottom lip between her teeth as she contemplated her next move. If the last few minutes were any indication, this John Smith was going to give her whiplash with his changing moods. “So how do you know our mutual friend?”

Neither of them was going to risk actually using Jack’s name, could never be too careful when the Agency was involved.

John shrugged his shoulders. “How does anyone meet him? I was at a pub drinking and he tried to proposition me.”

She couldn’t help it, Rose burst out laughing. The few diners at nearby tables turned to look and Rose clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle the noise but her shoulders were still shaking. A glance at John almost set her off again; he looked rather alarmed at her outburst.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” she said, wiping an errant tear off her face. “God, I needed a laugh today. That’s just so him though. I take it you didn’t accept his offer?”

“Not my type,” John said. “Plus, he didn’t even buy me a drink before asking. I’ve got standards.”

Rose continued to giggle and John felt the corners of his lips stretching into a smile in response. This girl was quite the mystery. Jack had refused to tell him anything, just saying that she was an extremely good thief and perfect for the job.  John knew Jack did not give out such recommendations lightly so he agreed to give her a shot. She’d walked into the restaurant wrapped in that black dress, just exuding sex; the exact kind of person he’d expect Jack to associate with and one that, while he definitely appreciated the look of, he would not have worked with. But within a few minutes, the act had disappeared and the sophisticated woman had turned into a London girl who teased him about his name and trust with steel in her voice. Just as he thought he’d finally gotten a read on her, she went and threw her head back and laughed without caring that people were staring. John just did not know what to make of her. He couldn’t even figure a good estimate on her age. When she’d walked in, he’d pegged her at around 28 but now that she had dropped her mask a bit he was inclined to think she was closer to 24. A puzzle for sure and one he was going to spend some time trying to figure out.

“So how did you meet him?” John asked, curious if she had a similar story to his.

“Lifted his wallet.” Rose grinned mischievously at him, tongue perching between her teeth. At his dumbfounded look she continued, “He noticed though and tailed me back to my flat where he asked for it back and then proceeded to try and proposition me.”

“Did you take him up on it?” He shot her words back at her.

“Nah, not my type either,” she said, raking her eyes over his torso again. Just like that, the tension that had been present when she first sat down at the table was back.

John leaned forward again and opened his mouth but before he could actually speak the waiter appeared again with their wine and an inquiry as to if they were ready to order. He didn’t know whether to be relieved or annoyed. He should definitely not be engaging in or encouraging this flirtation or whatever it was. Watching Rose turn her charm on the waiter while she asked what his suggestion for dinner would be, he was acutely aware that she was not just a thief. Jack had mentioned it briefly and seeing her interact like this made it glaringly obvious that she was a grifter in addition to being a thief; someone who could manipulate people as easily as he manipulated computer codes and definitely someone to be wary of.

Rose finished ordering and the waiter looked to him for his order. He picked something he remembered hearing in the spiel about specials earlier and handed over his menu. The waiter disappeared and it was once again just him and Rose.

His guard back up, John redirected the conversation. “Do you understand exactly what taking down this target entails?”

Rose bristled at the condescension in his tone. “I’m not an amateur if that’s what you’re tryin’ to get at. I’m very good at what I do and this job’s difficult but do-able with a bit of tech support.”

“Is that what I am? Tech support?” On his lips, the last two words sounded like they were the vilest poison.

“Don’t like the terminology?” Rose asked, tone sickly sweet.

“Not particularly, no. I’m a bit more than tech support.”

“Well if ya don’t like being talked down to, don’t do it to me.” Rose bit out the last few words. “You’re not the only one breaking a no partner rule for this job so don’t act like you’re doin’ me some huge favor by being here.” Rose put her elbows on the table, leaning closer to John, brown eyes boring into his icy blue ones. “We’re here to help our friend and I’ll be damned if a hacker with an attitude is going to keep me from doin’ that.”

“Fine, but don’t go thinking you can manipulate me. I’ve seen your type before; pretty little grifters who think that if they flutter their eyelashes the entire world will fall at their feet,” John said, crossing his arms again. “Doesn’t work on me and anyone trying usually regrets it.”

“Bet that’s why Jack couldn’t charm ya,” Rose muttered under her breath.

John glared at her, not deigning to comment on her aside.

“Okay, let’s jus’ make an agreement to work on this as equals; no bullshit.” Rose said, breaking the stalemate. “We don’t have to like each other, we just need to find a rhythm for this job to help Ja-” She paused with her mouth open and gave a sheepish smile before continuing, “our mutual friend. After that we can go back to our separate lives. That work for you?”

“Yeah, sounds fantastic.” John said after a moment’s consideration. Then he flashed a manic grin that caused Rose to blink a few times in shock as it was unexpected in the tense atmosphere. This whole dinner was just confirming her earlier thought that his moods were going to give her whiplash. She took a sip of her wine and let him guide the conversation into more innocuous waters; the merits and challenges of different kinds of security systems.

Throughout the rest of the meal, they stayed on neutral topics; tricks of the trade and a few mutual acquaintances. Declining desert, they asked the waiter to bring the bill. They both pulled out cash to pay with and Rose started giggling again. This time the giggles were joined by a low chuckle from her dinner partner. When they parted it was with plans to meet the next morning at a neutral, secure location to begin designing their attack on the Agency.

As Rose walked away from the restaurant, using what Jack had taught her to ensure she wasn’t being tailed; she had to keep reminding herself that the dinner had in no way been a date. Regardless, she couldn’t keep the smile off her face as she unlocked the door to her flat. Tomorrow would include John and planning the theft of a lifetime and it could not come fast enough. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word Count: 2,112
> 
> A/N: I'm sorry I've taken so long between updates this time. I started an internship a couple weeks ago so I actually have to go to work on weekdays which leaves me with less time to write. Plus this chapter was just giving me fits for some reason. Hope you enjoy though! Again, I know this says bank robbers AU and we will actually get to the bank robbing at some point, promise. Unbeta'd so all mistakes are mine.

At nine-thirty the next morning, Rose was seated at a café across the street from the building she was supposed to meet John at in half an hour. She was sipping on a coffee, watching the entrances that she could see. She didn't really expect John to use one of them, but if the meeting was compromised, someone else might be stupid enough to. The building was full of offices, mostly empty as it was scheduled to be demolished in a few months to make way for a newer office building.

Fifteen minutes before their scheduled time, Rose let herself in via a rarely used side door. Dressed in a pair of black slacks and a light pink button-down blouse, Rose was confident that she would blend in with the sparse population of workers should anyone see her. She'd also dug out the pair of black frame glasses she'd bought on a whim a few months ago. With those perched on her nose and her hair twisted into a bun she was the very image of a young professional.

She didn't see anyone on her way up to the fifth floor and with one last glance around to make sure no one was lurking in the hallway, she slipped into office 509.

Her mouth dropped open when she caught sight of the desk covered in computer screens and other tech. Rose had expected him to stalk into the room at ten o'clock in the dot, not to already be here and set up.

"Are you gonna continue lurkin' in the doorway or are you going to come in and get to work?" John's gruff voice made Rose jump. He hadn't turned around or given any indication that he heard her come in.

Quickly gathering herself, she strode further into the room and perched on the corner of John's desk. "How long've you been here?" She glanced at the screens but all the code was gibberish to her.

"Don't sleep much, me. Went back to my place after dinner, caught a coupla hours then came straight here to set up." John looked away from the code he was inputting and immediately regretted it. He'd thought she was gorgeous last night but he had written off any reaction as it just having been too long since he'd gone on anything even resembling a date and her having dressed to kill. But now she was sitting on the edge of his desk dressed in downright conservative (compared to last night) business attire and  _glasses_  and he thought she might be even more attractive than before.

 _Down boy_ , he warned himself. Maybe if he could get her to take off the glasses he wouldn't be as affected. There was just something about them…

Seemingly oblivious to his consternation, Rose continued the conversation. "Well I got a perfectly lovely eight hours of sleep and a dose or two of caffeine before coming here so 'm ready to get to work."

She jumped up from the desk and grabbed the long document tube sticking out of her bag. Rose laid it down on his desk and went to drag an unused table closer to the workspace John had already set up. As soon as it was arranged the way she wanted it, where she could see both John and the door, Rose grabbed the document tube off the desk and slid a set of blueprints out then anchored them at the corners with some paperweights she fished out of her bag. That finished, Rose sunk down in the extra office chair and immediately leaned over the document, tapping her pencil against the table as she thought. She'd already mapped out several possible entries into the Agency building and routes to the vault and executive office- the most likely places for Jack's plans to be stored. Now she had to figure out the exact logistics of each plan and what they would each require in terms of equipment and time so she could decide which was the most viable.

Curious, John stopped even pretending to type after a few minutes of silence from his mysterious partner and wandered over to her table. Peering over her shoulder, he squinted at the plans she was studying. When he realized what they were, his mouth dropped open.

He gaped like a goldfish for a moment, mouth opening and closing before he regained the use of his voice. "You have the blueprints for the Agency's building," he stated bluntly, still shocked by the document in Rose's possession.

"Yeah, got 'em a few months back," she answered absently, still trying to figure out if using the ventilation shafts was going to be a possibility.

"And you didn't think to share this information?" John asked, incredulous.

She looked up at him. "Thought you were working on something more...tech-y over there so I was just gonna leave ya to it and tell you about this," she waved her hand at the blueprints, "when you took a break or something."

Rose watched his face turning stony as she explained, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out why. She was just doing her part of the work while he did his, nothing to get tetchy over.

"Just had to get stuck with a stupid ape, didn't I?" He snapped, crossing his arms across his chest. "Most important job of my life and some airheaded blonde thinks she knows what's best and is withholding vital information from me. Seems like you were just spoutin' nonsense when you were talking about needing trust last night after all. Can't even manage to appear trustworthy, can you?" John started pacing and gesticulating violently while he talked before turning back to pierce Rose with an icy glare.

Rose certainly wasn't without a temper of her own and advanced on the irate hacker, eyes flashing behind her glasses. "I wasn't withholding anything and you know it. You're just being a bastard. I've been here for five minutes and you're laying into me for not telling ya something. Bloody hypocrite you are!" She pushed a finger into John's chest. "Didn't see you jumping to tell me what you're working on either. Trust is a two way street."

John opened his mouth, probably to deliver another scathing comment, but Rose cut him off before he could begin. "Last night you seemed to decide that I was worthy of working with your exalted self, but maybe you were distracted by the 'airheaded' blonde's eyelash fluttering that ya claimed to be immune to. Did your higher reasoning shut down in the face of a little black dress?" She sneered at him. "And don't think I didn't know you were quizzing me while we discussed security systems. I passed your little test, didn't I? Otherwise you wouldn't have shown up today." Rose had paced away from him while she talked, but she turned back and invaded his personal space again. "So you need to get a grip and remember that we're working on this as equals. This is important to me too. Got it?"

Rose and John were both breathing hard, tension crackling between them in the silence. Their faces were only a couple inches apart and John's eyes flicked down to her mouth. It would be so easy to reroute all of this; all he had to do was lean down a bit and his lips would be on hers.

He pulled back. "Got it," he barked, walking back to his desk and cursing himself for even thinking about giving into the temptation his partner presented. "Just would've been nice to know you already had them so I wouldn't have spent the last hour making my way into that part of the Agency's system."

Rose drew in a shuddering breath before answering; it was more difficult than she would've liked to maintain a semblance of calm after their row. "What did you want me to do? Tell you in the restaurant that I had them? Real safe, that." She winced after the last word left her mouth. Sarcasm was not the best way to appear unaffected. The anger flying around the room had felt much too close to passion for her piece of mind. She did not have time to deal with any sort of attraction to John. She certainly didn't have time to figure out why he she found him dead sexy even when he was yelling at her.  _Must be the leather jacket_ , Rose decided, nothing at all to do with the man wearing it.

"Guess not. Just didn't even consider that you might have blueprints already." John leaned back in his chair. His face was open and honest, surprising after the shouting match they'd just had. "Could've saved me some time, but there might be other useful information in the sector I've hacked into."

 _Mood swings_ , Rose reminded herself. Really, all she had to do was get through this job without throttling this man or jumping his bones. She could do it, she had self-control. Well, she had at least a little bit of self-control. It could definitely last her through the end of this.

He had started talking again while she was composing herself. "How did you get them anyways? It's not like they're just handing them out to anyone who asks."

Rose let out a sigh and an exaggerated roll of her eyes as she plopped back down in her chair. "It's like you keep forgetting that I'm a thief and a conwoman."

"How could I possibly forget when you keep reminding me?" He snarked with an eye roll of his own. "So which set of skills did you use for this?"

"They're not mutually exclusive skill sets you know. Charmed my way into their archives, convinced the boy down there to get me a cup of coffee while I looked at something rather boring and not at all important. While he was gone I wrote him a note saying that something had come up and I'd had to leave. Went and hid in the back of the archives until the building closed. Found the blueprints and slipped out the next morning as people were coming in." Rose slipped off her glasses and rubbed her temples as she started inspecting the blueprints again.

"That actually worked?" John asked skeptically.

"The boy, Adam I think his name was, was rather easy to toy with. It wasn't even a challenge. Plus their archives aren't all that secure because they don't keep anything incredibly important there." She grinned at him over her shoulder, "Poked around a bit while I was down there. Mostly just a lot of paperwork to make them look like a real business in case the coppers catch wind of them."

John looked reluctantly impressed. "Makes sense. Where would they keep something like Jack's plans then?" He pulled his chair over to her table so he could see what they were up against.

"The executive office and the vault are the likely candidates." She tapped her pencil on the blueprints to indicate the rooms as she mentioned them. "Ideally I'd like to get into both of them. That way we can make sure that we get all of Jack's work back and possibly clean them out in the process. It might distract them from the fact that Jack's plans were the main target for a while," she mused.

Rose tapped a square room on the ground floor. "The vault is where they keep their cut of the big jobs pulled in the city until they can get the cash laundered. Not only will we embarrass 'em by stealing the plans back from right under their noses, but we can rub their faces in the fact that they're not untouchable." She leaned back and met John's eyes, a wicked grin playing across her face.

There was something wolfish about Rose's smile as she proposed that idea for John. For the first time, he could actually see her as a thief. He'd already discovered her temper and pride the hard way, seen her as a grifter and as a woman, but this was another layer. She wasn't cold and calculating like some of the other thieves he'd work with, wasn't worn down and jaded by her profession. No, there was fire burning behind her eyes, ready to devour any obstacles that dared stand between her and a successful heist. She'd been hiding it, keeping the flames banked as they tried to figure each other out he realized. This was someone he could work with.

A smirk appeared on John's face, danger dancing in his eyes. "Fantastic. What do you need from me?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More planning for the upcoming debut of John and Rose's joint criminal career.
> 
> Also I'm aware that my technobabble is not convincing and it's because I'm not a tech person. But the way I figure it, it's an AU and I'm creating this world so the tech abides by my rules or lack thereof.

Since John was already almost into the part of the Agency's system that housed the blueprints and related files, he found the security updates that had been made since Rose had stolen her blueprints. With that updates information, they started planning in earnest.

"I can get in through the ventilation shafts here," she said, pointing at the roof of the building. "As far as I can tell, they're guarded only by the system of lasers they have at each opening."

"Lasers." John looked at his companion like she was insane, and he was beginning to think she was. "Lasers sound like they would be a problem."

"For most people, yeah." She grinned at him wolfishly. "I'm not most people. I have a experience and a system so lasers are easy to beat,” she paused and cocked her head to the side. “At least they are as long as I know what kind they are.

“Thanks to you," Rose spun around and planted a kiss on cheek, "I have that information."

John's focus zeroed in where her lips had just made contact, cataloging the lingering warmth and how her lips had felt on his skin.

Rose was on a roll through and oblivious to the impact of her gesture. "But that's where the Agency's problem lies. They're arrogant enough to think that no one can beat their systems so they don't hire warm bodies as guards. They rely on tech and tech by itself can be beaten by ingenuity and better tech. It's going to be a pleasure to prove them wrong."

She looked back at the plans. "I'm going to need to whip up a new harness for the initial vertical drop. I had to cut my last one on the Verne job when I snagged it going over their wall of thorns."

John found his voice again. "The Verne job was you? The police are still scratching their heads over that one. They can't figure out how that necklace was nicked from the expensive, state of the art security system." He paused for a moment, "It was guarded by lasers if I remember right."

"It was. Told you lasers weren't a problem."

Shaking his head, John went back to his computers.  He was halfway through writing the program he was going to use to wipe the Agency's systems.

They worked in silence for fifteen minutes or so before Rose asked him if he needed a way into the building.

"I don't know if you can do what you need to do remotely or if you need physical access," she explained.

"I need in. I have to hardwire into their servers to search the whole thing and wipe it. Their computer security is good and would kick me out before I could do what I need wirelessly."

"Alright, I'll work on finding you a way in then."

"Can we not use the same way?" He asked, unsure why they would risk disturbing security in two separate places.

Rose called out the dimensions of the ventilation shafts in response. John cringed, there was no way in hell he would fit in that small of a space.

Rose laughed at his expression. "There's other ways in, especially if I go in first and disarm some of the security. Let me work for a bit and I can give you some options."

Leaving her to it, he went back to writing his code.

Rose was in her element, figuring out where and how to hit a target always energized her. It was a puzzle and one she was good at. School had never interested her much, all of those subjects that did nothing to help her put food on the table at home. She'd found her calling in figuring out people; what made them tick and why they did things.

The same thing applied to heists. People designed security a certain way and it always told a story. When she was done dissecting a security system, Rose could deliver a practical profile on what was important to the person or company and their general outlook on the world. She considered it part of her planning process.

John was equally engrossed in his work. It was going to be a masterpiece, this virus. An unsigned masterpiece by necessity, but he could live with that. It was going to wipe every single bit of data off of the Agency's servers, even the ones that were kept off site. All of their records and ongoing projects would be gone without a hope of recovering any of it.

He was finishing a tricky bit of code when Rose's voice pulled him out his reverie.

"...cameras remotely?"

He looked glanced at her expectant face. "What was that?"

Rose laughed. "You were really focused on whatever you're doing over there weren't you? I've been talking for a couple minutes."

He had the good grace to look sheepish. "Bit of a one track mind, me."

Rose's smile turned wicked, "That's good to know." She ran her eyes over him slowly, letting him know she was appreciating the view.

John could feel the tips of his ears turning pink. He blustered through asking her what her question had been, trying not to let on that he was affected by her flirting.

 _Just get through this job_ , he thought. _Get through it and then you can see about doing something about your libido. Something that will not involve your blonde partner in crime._

"I was sayin' that I might've found a way in for you but I need to know if you can take out the cameras remotely or if I need to do it once I'm inside." Rose was fighting off a smirk. Flustered John was something she hadn't seen yet and she was vastly entertained by it.

She watched as he pulled up the specs on the cameras installed in the Agency's building. He studied them for a moment before his lips quirked in a sardonic grin.

"Oh, I can take these out remotely. Can do better than that, I'll get into that system tonight and record the empty hallways and replace the live feed with the recorded one.” The flustered look from earlier was gone, replaced by derision, “I know this system intimately.”

“Run across them a lot or something?” Rose questioned. “I’ve never seen them before and I’ve seen a lot of security cameras.”

“I designed them.” He said bluntly, turning away from her and back to his computer.

Rose could tell that he didn’t want to talk about it. The way he threw himself back into his work was like a big flashing keep out sign. Unfortunately for him, she was not going to let the subject just drop.

“Didn’t know you designed security cams,” she commented.

“Lot of things you don’t know about me.”

Rose rolled her eyes. He really liked maintaining that whole mystery man image. Maybe a good flirt would get him talking again. She wandered over to his desk and perched on the edge again.

“Anything else I don’t know about you that you’d like to share with the class,” she purred.

John didn’t even look up. “I told you I’m not just tech support, Rose. Don’t know why you’re so surprised that I do other things.”

“And I’m curious as to what those other things are,” Rose answered, exasperated. “Can’t blame a girl for wondering."

The last bit was muttered under her breath but it didn't keep John from hearing it. He spun around to face her. "Sharing would imply that I trusted you an' we already established that I don't." He waited a beat before continuing, “But if it'll get me a bit of hush so I can get back to work..."

Rose nodded, trying not to show that the comment about not trusting her had stung. She needed to remember that John was not her friend.  He was just an ally, a tool for this job.

He leaned back in his chair and crossed leather-coated arms over his chest. "I've degrees in computer engineering and physics and a doctorate in computer science. So yes, I design and build systems. The cameras the Agency has are ones I did up about three years ago."

Rose stored the information about his degrees to ponder over later. She hadn't taken him for the academic sort, especially not formal academics.

"So how did the Agency end up with your security when no one else did, _Doctor_?"

John's jaw clenched, causing a muscle in his cheek to twitch. He turned suddenly stormy eyes back to his computer screen. Rose was starting to think he was just going to ignore her question when his voice, filled with venom, shattered the uncomfortable silence. "How does the Agency get anything? They stole them."

Rose could tell there was more to that story, much more but she also knew she'd pushed him as far as she could for the moment. She hopped off his desk, straightened her blouse and went back to her own work.

~~~~~~~~~

It was an hour before anyone spoke again.

John rolled his neck and arched his back, stretching out the kinks that had developed while he'd been hunkered over his keyboard. Turning thirty was hell, he decided. He didn't used to get quite so sore in so short of a time.

He glanced over to where Rose sat bent over a notebook and scribbling something. He wanted to be mad at her for prying into his life earlier but couldn't actually muster up any anger. Pulling himself to his feet, he wandered over to her work table.

"What're you doing?" John murmured next to her ear, leaning over her shoulder.

Rose squeaked and jerked her head up, narrowly missing hitting John's chin.

"Blimey, could you make some noise or somthin' so you don't scare the life outta me?"

John was entertained by the way her accent got stronger when she was startled. "I'm a thief, Rose. Making noise is not exactly in the job description."

"Ugh, you're right." She dropped her head back down, rubbing her eyes.  She had taken off her glasses at some point and they were lying on the table. "I was just caught up in this so I didn't see ya get up."

"Everything starting to blur together?" He asked. All the letters and numbers on his screen had started to do so as well.

"Yeah. God, I would kill for a cigarette right about now." She leaned back and stretched, arms above her head.

John was too busy watching the way her shirt strained over her chest to keep words from coming out of his mouth. "You smoke?"

Damn, he was trying to discourage small talk and personal stories, not initiate them.

She shot him a wry smile. "Not for years, but still get the craving sometimes when I've been working on a problem as intricate as this." She waved a hand at the paper and notebooks that were spread out on top of the blueprints now.

It looked like absolute chaos to John but he assumed she had it in some sort of order. "Want to explain it all to me? Give your eyes a break and fill me in."

Rose showed him the ventilation shaft she was going to go through and where it would let out in the building.

"I'm going to finish making my new harness tonight for the vertical drop. There's a camera right next to where I want to drop into the hallway so that's where your ability to override your own cameras comes in. I'll need to have them taken care of before I go in."

"I can do that."

"I know," she said, flashing him a sweet smile.

"There's a maintenance entrance on the east side of the building that doesn't seem to have as much security, at least on the outside door. And what security there is should be easy enough for you to bypass without a problem.

“It opens into a closet that they store some of the stuff for window washing and outdoor maintenance. The inside door that leads into the building has all of the security that the other doors do and as you know, the door security at the Agency is top notch. We'd need a couple more days than we have to crack it properly."

Rose paused so John could confirm her assessment of the door security.

He glanced at the model numbers of the system that Rose had written down and nodded.

"So how're you planning on having me get in that door then?" He asked.

She grinned, that bit of fire he'd seen earlier reigniting in her eyes. "It's much easier to open a door from the inside. So once I’m in, I’ll just open the door for you."

A chuckle escaped John, "That's fantastic."

"Isn't it just. Anyone with an Agency passcard should be able to open this door since there's no sensitive material behind it or anything. So I figured I'd drop by tomorrow as people are leaving for the day and pick me up a passcard."

Rose paused and twisted around in her seat to look John in the face. "I didn't ask you but I was hoping to get this job done as soon as possible, before they really have time to sell Jack's plans or anythin'. So I'll be ready by tomorrow night, would that work for you?"

He did some quick calculations in his head, "Yeah, everything should be ready to go by then."

"Brilliant!" She exclaimed.

John was still recovering from the brightness of her smile as she began to lay out the rest of her plan.

She highlighted the quickest route to the servers for him and indicates the path she would be taking to get to the vault. She would clean that out and rendezvous with John in the executive office so they could tag team the extra security measures there.

As she talked, she explained why she'd set things up the way she had and the pieces of paper scattered around the table started to form a pattern. They each had pertinent details regarding a certain aspect of their mission and John found he was impressed by the way she was able to work with the small details and big picture at the same time.

He asked a few questions during her explanation and offered one or two suggestions but her plan was solid. Before this moment he hadn't been entirely sure they could pull this off. The Agency was a tough nut to crack but apparently Jack had been right in his assessment of Rose Tyler. She was one hell of a thief.

Unaware of John's approval, Rose bit the edge of her thumb, waiting for his opinion of the plan as a whole. There were a few security tangles that she needed him to unravel on the technical end and she hoped he had enough time for them.

"So...whatcha think?" She finally questioned as he continued to just stare at her papers.

"I think it'll work," he pronounced.  I have to put the final touches on the virus I'll be inserting into their system and then I'll worm my way into the cameras to record tonight's activity. The few extra bits of security on the upper levels shouldn't be a problem since you have all the models and systems laid out for me. I'll make sure to bring the equipment I need to take care of them."

He straightened from where he had been leaning on Rose's work table. "I like your exit plan of leaving everything as we found it so they don't know how we managed to clean them out. Very nice. Neat. We do need a rendezvous point away from the building to meet at afterwards though."

Rose pulled a map of the area out from under some other papers. At his surprised look, she told him that she was prepared for everything.

"There," he said pointing to a corner two blocks north and one block west of the building. "There's an old police box on that corner.  We can meet there and figure out what we came away with and how we're gonna get it to Jack without implicating ourselves."

"Alright, sounds good to me."

"Fantastic."

"You use that word a lot, you know," Rose commented as she began to gather all of her papers.

John was already settling back into his desk chair. "Got a problem with that?"

"No, s'just an observation." She finished rolling up her blueprints and stuck the tube in her bag. "I'm planning on starting at 1 am, will the cameras be out by then?"

"They can be," he said evenly, aware that she was subtly trying to take control of this entire project. She'd find out once they were actually working that he wasn't willing to give over control that easily.

"Alright, I'll see you then!"

John had turned back to his computers, pointedly not watching her walk out of the room like he would've liked to.

He never heard her coming.

Rose spun his chair around to face her one more time and kissed his cheek again, lingering and near the corner of his mouth this time. When she pulled back it was with a smug smirk firmly in place.

"Don't work too long; you're going to need stamina tomorrow night." She tossed him a wink and then strolled out of the room, hips switching and a grin on her face as she was certain she held the power now.

The anticipation of the heist was running through her veins, making her giddier than alcohol could ever accomplish. Tomorrow night would be the biggest night of her life and if she happened to be factoring John into her after-heist plans, no one had to know but her.

When the door closed behind her, John stared at it, rubbing his forehead with one hand. He'd decided earlier that Rose Tyler was one hell of thief. He felt like he could've gone without the reminder that she was one hell of a woman as well.

Forcing himself to ignore the ghost of her kiss and the images her innuendo had conjured up, he got back to work. The excitement of beating the Agency at their own game and successfully pulling this off was better than caffeine which was good since he wasn't sleeping anytime soon. John smirked; wouldn't Rose love to know just how fantastic his stamina really was.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And finally we have an actual robbery! (of the Agency, still not actually a bank.)

At 1 am on the appointed night, Rose was standing on the rooftop of the Agency's building, preparing herself for the task ahead. After checking her bag one last time to make sure she wasn't missing anything,  Rose began to slip on her new harness. Adrenaline was already slipping through her veins, steadying her hands and sharpening her senses.

“Cameras have been out for an hour,” John’s voice fractured the night’s silence, “in case you were wonderin’.”

Rose jumped at the sound of his voice, eyes searching the darkness for him. “What the hell are you doing up here, John?” 

He stepped out from the deep shadows next to a different set of air ducts than the ones Rose was planning to use and leaned against one, smirking at her.

“I would ask how you got up here without me noticing but I don’t think I want to know,” she continued, returning to tightening the straps on her harness, checking and double-checking every strap.

John watched intently. His partner was dressed in all black. Apparently her version of the traditional catsuit was some sort of skin tight black trousers and a form fitting, long sleeved, black t-shirt. Her blonde hair was hidden under a cap and christ she just had to be running her hands all over herself while checking that harness.

He bit his tongue before the offer to check it for her actually came out of his mouth. 

Satisfied with the harness she turned to face John. “So why are you up here? Checking up on me?” There was steel in her voice despite her teasing tone.

“Just thought I’d let you know that I’ve confirmed the cameras are down.” He shrugged, “Like to be thorough me.”

“Alright,” she said, looking at him like he was a bit of a nutter. “Since you’re up here, is there anything you want to go over before we go in?”

“You let me in, I go to the server room, you go to the vault. We meet on the executive level, clean it out and then get the hell out of here and meet at the rendez-vous point.

“No human guards, cameras are out. You have the equipment needed to bypass the electronic security you’ll find on the way to the vault.” John stopped and grinned at her. “Did I miss anything?”

“Don’t look so smug, mister. Its not attractive.”

That was an utter lie. The little smirk on his face was screaming “fuck me” and it almost made her want to ditch the mission and drag him off and make him honor its intent.

Later, she promised herself.

“You did leave one thing out actually, but I’ll let it slide since I just remembered them this morning myself.” She tossed a small box at him. “Was going to give it to you when I let you in but this is better.”

Rose waited for him to open the box and take out the small earbud that was nestled inside. “Thought it would be nice to be able to communicate while we’re in different parts of the building.”

John looked at the device skeptically as Rose rushed on.

“They’re secure. I’ve used them on the couple of cons I’ve run with a partner.”

He still didn’t say anything, just slipped it in his ear, silently acceding that it was a good idea.

Rose took one more look down the ventilation shaft then started walking towards John, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. Her gear was all securely attached to her.

John was a little unnerved by the predatory gleam in her eyes as she stalked forward but stood his ground.

“See ya downstairs,” she said. He heard a click behind him as she rose up on her toes and planted a quick kiss on his cheek.

Then she took off running. Rose lept into the open ventilation shaft and John was left on the roof watching the rope she’d secured to the railing behind him disappear after her.

And she looked at me like I was crazy, he thought. She definitely had a few loose screws.

It’d take an interrogation team to make him admit it out loud, but he liked that about her.

Grin firmly in place and ready to get started, John left the roof to go break into the Agency’s maintenance closet.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Rose crawled through the air ducts, counting the opening she passed, ticking them off against her mental map until she reached the vent she wanted to use. So far the calculations she’d made (that John had insisted on checking) had held true and she had enough rope to make it to the ground. 

She carefully removed the vent cover and laid it inside the duct so she could replace it on her way out. Rose stuck her head out to make sure the layout matched what she had studied on the blueprints.

Satisfied that they did and that she was in the right spot, she lowered herself to the floor.

“Good job the cameras are out, yeah?” She said softly, staring up into the one right next to the vent she’d just come out of. “This one is is right next to where I came down.”

“Well aren’t you just taking your sweet time,” John snarked in her ear. He was getting impatient just standing in the closet.

“Like to see you crawl through those vents any faster.”

Before he could respond, the door in front of him popped open and a triumphant Rose Tyler was in front of him, brandishing the keycard sh had procured earlier.

“Worked like a charm,” she proclaimed. “Now then, let’s get moving.”

She set off down the corridor at a light jog, heading towards the vault without giving him a chance to reply.

John wen the opposite direction, gritting his teeth and fighting the urge to remind her that she was not actually in charge. That would just start a fight and they couldn’t afford that now that the mission was in-progress. So he kept his silence and made a mental note that this was one of the reasons he worked alone.

His musings lasted him all the way to the server room. They’d upgraded the security here from what had been indicated on Rose’s blueprints or in the security data he’d hack. Luckily the system was still one he was familiar with.

John popped the keypad open, exposing the wires, and hooked his codebreaker in. He cursed under his breath when he shocked his fingers.

“I can still hear you ya know,” Rose chastised playfully over the comms.

“Good for you,” he muttered, focused on not setting off the sensitive alarm. This model required delicacy and precision.”

“God, are you ever not grumpy? You’d think being in the middle of robbing the Agency blind would put you in a bit better mood. I’m feeling great, all this adrenaline…” she trailed off.

“I’ll consider a better mood when we’re free and clear.”

There that should do the trick. His codebreaker whirred to life, numbers racing across the screen. 

“I’ll hold you to that,” Rose answered. She knew she probably shouldn’t be flirting with him in the middle of their heist but if just felt so natural; all the banter and teasing and struggling for the upper hand.

She was enjoying this far too much, but she always did love a good break-in.

Rose skidded to a stop in front of the first door that led to the vault. She pulled out her own codebreaker and hooked it in.

The door popped open twenty seconds later as it was not as sophisticated as the one John was dealing with.

Rose stepped into the vault’s antechamber. This is where the real vault security was located. Fingerprints, retinal scans, and the right keycard were required to open the reinforced steel door.

Luckily the Agency made the smae assumption they had on the roof.

Lasers wouldn’t keep Rose Tyler out of the vault just as they hadn’t kept her out of the building.

~~~~~~~~~

“Gotcha,” John muttered darkly as his device, with a little extra help from him, finally cracked the code to the server room. Their equipment was good, but he was better.

“Less cryptic statements would be good when I’m dangling from the ceiling in the vault.”

“Why are you-” he cut himself off, “never mind, don’t want to know. I’m into the server room.”

“Brilliant. Go do you tech thing, I’ll take care of things here.”

John shook his head. It was taking some getting used to, this having Rose in his ear. It was one thing to not be able to get the blonde off his mind and another thing entirely to be literally unable to get her out of his head during this mission.

He sat down at the computer terminal and immediately input the search parameters for Jack’s stolen, top-secret project. As it ran, he set up his own equipment on the small amount of table space.

A ding alerted the hacker to the finished search. As he suspected, the stolen plans were hidden behind a partition on a secure part of the server. If he was right about who had designed the computer security though…

John keyed in a few commands.

A cold smile stretched across his face as he bypassed the partition. He hated that he was so well acquainted with the inner workings of the Agency but it had its uses today.

He downloaded the files he needed onto a flash drive before inserting a different drive that contained his virus.

He watched as it infiltrated every corner of the system, leaving nothing intact. When the off-site servers made contact to try and replace the lost data the virus, with some help from John, back-hacked them remotely and wiped them as well.

Once it was finished he packed his equipment back in his bag and headed out the door, making sure that he left no trace of his presence in the room.

It was something he and Rose had agreed upon with no argument; no one would know they had been there until they arrived in the morning to find the vault empty and the computers useless for anything besides playing solitaire.

John headed towards the stairs at a jog.

“Rose, where are you at with the vault?”

“Just left it. Coupla things were too bulky for me to get out with but I have quite the haul.” She sounded like she was talking through a smile. “Probably gonna need to put some of it in your bag so it’s not so heavy.”

“Meet me a level down from the exec level so we can do that,” John replied, trying to ignore the extraneous chatter so that maybe she’d stop. He was just as hyped on adrenaline as she was but John used it to fuel tight control over himself during a job. It seemed to have the opposite effect on Rose, making her chatty and cheerful.

Good thing this was a walkaway, a one time gig. She might drive him completely insane otherwise.

He leaned against the wall across from the lifts on the appropriate level, waiting for his partner to show up.

“Cleaned them out good and proper.” The voice didn’t just come from his earpiece, it was behind him

Rose thoroughly enjoyed the squeak of surprise her clandestine arrival had earned her. “Come on now, big man like you scared by a little thief sneaking up on you?”

She gave him an appraising look, running her eyes over the length of his body. “How old are you anyways?”

“How old are you?” He shot back, not amused by her antics.

“A lady never reveals her age,” rose replied in the posh tone she’d used when they first met.

“Well then I’m not going to either.”

Rose looked up from where she’d crouched to divide the loot and cocked an eyebrow at him. “Are you saying you’re a lady? Because that’s a damn shame. I had plans for later that required different...equipment.” She raked her eyes over him again, lingering around his belt.

“Oi, mind on the mission please,” John spluttered, ears turning pink in response to her blatant come on.

They finished dividing the loot as John directed the minimal conversation to what Rose had found in the vault. That done, they made their way to the stairs that would get them to the executive level.

John went first so he could take care of the security on the first door. A series of beeps announced that the door was unlocked.

He opened it a few inches and peeked into the hallway, only slightly distracted by Rose pressing against his back trying to see as well.

He was about to step forward into the hallway when he heard something that caused him to stop. Listening a bit closer he stiffened and stepped back, almost knocking his partner over in his haste.

Rose opened her mouth to ask him what he was on about but John clamped a hand over her mouth and started dragging her down the stairs, his other hand a vise around her wrist.

When they came to a stop, Rose yanked away from him, shaking her wrist. “What the hell was that about?” she demanded, something very close to anger flashing in her eyes.

“We have a problem,” John said shortly, a storm of his own brewing behind blue eyes.

“I’ll say! You can’t just go draggin’ me around like that,” Rose snapped.

The hacker rolled his eyes. “Can we keep the domestics out this? You don’t have to like how I do things, but I just saved your pretty little arse so maybe some thanks would be nice.”

Rose just gave him an answering eye roll and made no effort to thank him.

“There’s a guard up there,” John finally revealed.

“What? Are you sure?” Rose blurted out, eyes wide. “There was nothing in any of the security plans to indicate there would be a guard.”

“Heard them walking towards us.”

“I didn’t hear anything,” she objected.

“Good hearing, me,” he said, turning to open his bag.

“Well you should have with those ears,” Rose muttered to his back.

“Oi!” he looked over his shoulder to shoot her an offended look.

Ignoring it, Rose began talking, ready to get around this unforeseen obstacle. “So, how are we gonna get past the guard without alerting them that we’re here?”

She paused. “I’m assuming we’re sticking to the plan where no one knows we were here until opening tomorrow?”

John shot her a withering glance that told her exactly what he thought of that question.

“Okay, yeah, that’s still best. I mean with that plan in place we can’t just, I don’t know, knock him out,” she was pacing now, gesturing with her hands while she talked. “Don’t know when he’d come to and sound the alarm.”

“No violence.” John didn’t even look up from the laptop he was now typing on as he said it, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Rose glared at the back of his head. She’d wished before that he would stop having so many mood swings but now that he was all focused and grumpy she wasn’t sure she liked it. Even so, they’d been in the Agency’s building for less than thirty minutes and she’d alternated between wanting to strangle him and wanting to snog him multiple times. Dear God the man was frustrating!

“What are we going to then?” she asked aloud.

John could hear the frustration in her voice but ignored it while he typed a few more commands into his laptop. “We’re going to distract him.” 

He hit one last key and then shut his laptop, stowing it back in his bag. “That should do it. Let’s get going.”

“What did you do?” Rose’s voice was dripping with annoyance and barely leashed anger. She hated being left out of the loop. 

“Sent the guard on a wild goose chase,” John answered, his manic grin making a reappearance. He started up the stairs again. When he realized Rose wasn’t following him, he turned around with a huff. “What? We only have short window before he comes back.”

“You can’t just make executive decisions like that and not tell me what you’re doing.” John got the distinct impression that if they weren’t in the middle of a job, she would be yelling. “That’s not how a partnership works.”

“Like I said, I don’t need you to approve of what I do. This is a one-time job and I work better alone.”

“Yeah, it shows,” she spat as they entered the hallway on the executive level.

“I was saving us time by getting rid of the guard as quickly as possible. So sorry that I didn’t ask your permission and hurt your feelings.” John laid the sarcasm on thick, aggravated with this whole conversation. He just wanted to get this job over with so this little blonde thief would stop tying him in knots.

“If you have to know, I set off one of the proximity alarms by the northwest door. Those things have a hair trigger and go off all the time. It was in the logs. If there’s a guard here, he’d be required to go check it out regardless.”

He glared at her over his shoulder as he popped the casing off the keypad that guarded the door to the main executive office. “Satisfied?”

Not nearly, she thought, not yet. 

“Good enough. Just focus on getting us in.”

Rose nervously counted off the seconds while John hacked his way in.

This much time since the guard had left.

This much time until he would be back.

Seconds slipped from one category to the other and a fresh wave of adrenaline flashed through Rose’s system. This was a new challenge and she was ready for it.

As soon as she heard the door lock disengage, Rose pushed past John and into the room, immediately starting her search for the safe.

John sat down at the desk, made sure the computer was indeed wiped and then started systematically checking the desk for flash drives and any other items of interest.

“Oh you’re a beauty,” he heard Rose croon, awe in her voice.

John turned around and saw her running her hands over a safe like he imagined she might caress a lover.

“It’s a Torchwood S250,” she said reverently.

“Can you break it?  
“You have no appreciation for the beautiful things in life do you? This is a gorgeous piece of engineering. One single piece of steel, four inches thick, manipulated to create a seamless box. Glass re-lockers and thermal re-lockers standard plus a five digit combination instead of the standard three or four.”

“‘M not a safe cracker, Rose and if you’re done lusting over the safe, can you hurry up and get the damn thing open?”

“Think so, yeah. Never actually worked on one of these before but I’ve studied the specs and brought the equipment I need.”

She glanced up as she took a mini-blowtorch out of her bag. “If you’re going to continue to search the room, I’m gonna need you to be quiet once I start actually cracking here.”

Rose turned the safe around and then switched the torch on. She was about to hold it to the safe when John interrupted.

“I’m assuming a ‘thermal re-locker’ does exactly what it sounds like and won’t that thing set off heat sensors?”

Rose grinned. “Cold flame. Newest thing in the safe-cracking world. Just got it last week. Been dying to use it.”

With that remark Rose held the torch to the back of the safe, making a small hole through the steel. Once it was large enough, she inserted her scope and got down to the business of cracking the safe.

Finished with his search, John watched her work the safe with single-minded intensity. The frustration he’d felt earlier drained away in the face of her dedication and her glee at seeing the safe. She might be chatty and cheery while working, but she was definitely a professional. He had to admit that doing this job with anyone else would have been a nightmare and likely would’ve ended in a failure. He and Rose might butt heads but Jack had been right; she was the best thief he had ever seen in action.

“Aha!” Rose exclaimed as the safe swung open. She checked her watch. “Four minutes and three seconds. Not bad for a safe I’ve never seen before. Probably the fastest time out there since this model’s only been available for a week and a half or so.

“It’s a shame I can’t take any credit,” she mused as she moved the contents of the safe into her bag and replaced her tools.

She stood, hefting her bag over her shoulder and reattaching it to her harness. “Let’s get out of here.”

John let her lead them back to the maintenance door he’d entered through. She used the keycard to open it again and gestured for him to go on.

“See ya on the outside,” Rose said with a grin that spread across her whole face. She reattached her harness to the rope dangling from the vent and prepared to get back up to the roof.

John slipped out of the Agency building with a grin on his face as well and made his way towards their rendezvous point to wait for Rose.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They met up a few blocks away from the Agency at the appointed rendezvous spot: an old police box.

Rose grinned at the sight of him leaning up against the battered, blue wood, looking like he owned the damn thing. She ran the last few meters to him and dropped her bag at his feet before barreling into his arms. He was waiting for her and picked her up spinning her around, his rough chuckle joining her giddy laughter.

She landed with her back to the police box and smiled up at him. “We did it!”

John looked affronted. “Did you think we wouldn’t?”

“Dunno, neither of us have worked with a partner before,” she mused. “Didn’t know if we’d actually work well together. A lot could’ve gone wrong.”

“Seemed to go alright to me,” he offered offhandedly, as if they hadn’t just gotten away with the heist of the year with little to no problems.

“Well you definitely kept your word about being in a better mood once we were out,” Rose teased. “Better with two, then?”

She tucked her tongue between her teeth as she grinned up at him, deliberately trying to provoke him.

The thrill of the heist was thrumming through her veins still and all she wanted to do was act on the attraction that had been simmering between them since their first meeting.

John’s eyes fixated on the sliver of tongue he could see and he broke.

Pushing her back against the blue box, he slanted his lips across hers. Rose opened her mouth immediately, inviting him in. There was nothing slow about this first kiss. It was all hunger and excitement and heat, teeth nipping and tongues dueling for control.

John vaguely registered that she’d taken off her harness before meeting him as both of their hands scrambled to find skin. Just as Rose managed to get a hand under his jumper he grabbed her wrists and wrenched them up, pinning them above her head.

He moved his mouth to her neck, sucking and nipping his way down its length. He could hear her gasping for breath near his ear and smirked as he ground his hips into hers, causing her to let loose a whimper.

Rose could barely form a coherent thought. Holy hell, she’d known that there was passion bubbling just under John’s stoic surface but this was beyond anything she’d expected. She wanted everything though. She wanted his lips back on hers and she wanted to touch him. Wanted to drag him back up by his ears and pin him against the wood and have her way with him.

“Definitely better with two,” John whispered in her ear darkly, pushing his hips forward again.

“Unfortunately,” he swiped his tongue around the outer rim of her ear before continuing, “I still don’t trust you.”

The hand that had been grasping at her hip suddenly moved and Rose felt the sturdy wall behind her disappear as she tumbled into the filthy interior of the police box.

John quickly shut the door and locked it before she could recover.

“Nothin’ personal, love. Just don’t trust anyone. I’ll make sure you still get your cut and your equipment back.”

“You bloody bastard!” Rose shouted, banging her fist against the door.

John smile, imagining the seething woman on the other side of the door. He had a feeling this was going to be the only time he’d be able to pull one over on her like this.

Not that he’d get the opportunity again anyways, this was a one-time gig.

“How the hell am I supposed to get out of this fucking box?” She kicked the door violently but despite the age of the wood, it was still sturdy.

“I’ll drop the key off with Jack in a couple of hours and tell him to come get you. Until then, I suggest you be very quiet so a concerned citizen doesn’t call you in. Wouldn’t do for a police officer to find an actual criminal in a defunct police box.”

Rose could hear the amusement in his voice and wanted to strangle him. He’d been planning this from the beginning and she never saw it coming.

God help him if she ever saw him again after this.

“Nice working with ya, Rose.” He tucked the key in his pocket, slung both their bags over his shoulders and strode off down the street towards his car.

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips at the litany of curses that were streaming from the incongruous blue box on the corner.


	7. Chapter 7

John scowled down into his cup of coffee. He wasn’t completely sure how Jack had managed to invite himself over to his flat this morning but he had. Well that was not entirely accurate; John knew exactly how it had happened but he still didn’t have to like it. 

Jack had taken advantage of the fact that his phone call had woken John up from the first time he’d managed a kip in 48 hours. The invitation had been extracted before John was fully awake and functional. 

So the hacker was left pulling on clothes and mainlining the coffee he’d put on so he would be somewhat alert whenever his guest appeared. The whole series of events more than merited a scowl in John’s opinion. If it wasn’t half ten in the morning he would have already poured himself a couple fingers of whiskey. He considered doing it anyways but decided coffee was the safer choice for now. 

When the knock on the door finally came, John downed the rest of his cup and strode over the door, long legs and angry gait making short work of the inconsiderable distance. He opened it to find Jack smiling widely at him, hands stuck in his pockets. 

“Good morning sunshine!” Jack greeted, clapping John on the shoulder and walking into the flat. “How are you this fine day?” 

John grunted in the face of his exuberance and slammed the door shut before stalking back to the kitchen and pouring another cup of coffee. 

Jack took a moment to appreciate the rather fine view of John’s backside before following. 

“Are you always this adorably nonverbal in the mornings or am I a special case?” He asked, rummaging around in the cupboards to find a mug. 

“What do you want Jack?” 

“You. Preferably naked but I’m willing to settle for half clothed.” Jack didn’t miss a beat as he poured coffee. 

“Never gonna happen.” 

It was brief but Jack caught the quick upturn of John’s lips as he raised his mug to hide it. His friend knew how to handle the flirting. He had no idea how to handle Jack inviting himself over. 

_Control freak_ , Jack thought fondly. “Worth a shot every time though,” he said aloud. 

He paused, wondering if this was his best shot at broaching on of the topics he’d come over to discuss. Again, worth a shot. He took a breath and dove. “Bet your answer would be different if a certain blonde thief asked.” He took a sip of coffee, trying to appear nonchalant as he watched his friend. 

John’s expression immediately shifted from one of faint amusement to a stone wall, unmoving and revealing nothing of what was going through his mind. 

And oh his thoughts were whirling behind that stony mask. His answer would have been very different if Rose had been the one uttering the words about wanting him naked. Very different indeed. 

It had been just over a year since the Agency job and John hadn’t been able to shake thoughts of Rose. He really hadn’t been planning on kissing her that night, hadn’t planned to pin her against the battered blue wood and feel her soft curves against his body. Hadn’t planned on learning what it sounded like to listen to her pant with need as he trailed his mouth down her neck. Jack’s words had brought back the phantom feeling of her lips on his and the exact memory of how her skin tasted on his tongue, salty and sweet at the same time. 

Not that the memory had ever faded. 

“I’m not talkin’ about that job, Jack. Or about her. It was a walk away, never to be mentioned again.” 

_Or thought about_ , he added to himself, trying once more to banish thoughts of the blonde thief from his head. He might need that whiskey after all. 

“Fine, fine,” the conman said, putting a hand up to admit defeat. He’d known it was a long shot but he’d had to give it one last go. “Lucky for both of us that I have something else to tell you so you don’t kick me out right now.” 

John made an impatient “go ahead” gesture. 

Jack took a long sip of his coffee. “I’m leaving London, going back to the States.” 

That caught the hacker by surprise. He’d been under the assumption that Jack had made London his permanent home. “When?” 

“Next week. The powers that be have commanded and I must obey.” 

The cheeky grin Jack had been wearing slid off his face. “For most people I’m just going to disappear and they won’t think twice about it after a few days but since I consider you a good friend I wanted to tell you.” 

John was touched. He and Jack had their moments of contention but he really did count Jack as one of his only friends. “You’ll be missed,” he said sincerely. 

“Oh I know I will be,” Jack teased, his usual playful demeanor back in place. “Thanks for helping me out when I need it. I’d give you a kiss to say bye but you might punch me and I rather like my face the way it is.” 

He started laughing in earnest when John growled in warning. 

Jack left the John’s flat half an hour later. They’d talked about various escapades they’d had together and some people they knew, both dancing around the fact that it might well be the last time they would see each other. Jack was reluctant to leave but he had an appointment to get to by noon. 

He’d known John probably wouldn’t talk about Rose. Neither of them would breathe a word about the other or the job and it was driving Jack crazy. He’d been looking forward to the two of them meeting. His two friends were volatile and he had just _known_ that sparks would fly between the two of them. Unfortunately instead of kindling a fire, they seemed to have burned each other. 

Jack damn well wanted to know the series of events that led to John dropping a key off at his door with a note that there was an urgent package for him in the police box on the indicated corner. (There had been a postscript scribbled at the bottom that the contents were unstable and he should handle with care.) 

When Jack had approached the blue box and heard familiar muttering coming from it he almost choked remembering the wording of the note. He turned the key in the lock and a fuming Rose Tyler came barreling out. 

“Bastard better hope I never lay eyes on ‘im again. He won’t live to tell the tale if I do.” 

“No hello, thanks for letting me out of the box, Jack?” he teased, trying to distract her from her anger. Her accent was the thickest he’d ever heard it and that was never a good sign. 

She turned on him, eyes full of cold fire. “Job was a success. _He_ ’s got all the loot and my equipment and should be dropping it off with you at the time and location he discussed with you previously.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “An’ don’t tell me when and where that is because I might kill ‘im. I really might.” 

“Do I even dare ask what happened?” 

“Your friend’s a bastard.” 

“So you’ve said. Doesn’t explain how you ended up locked in an old police box.” 

“We’re not discussing it.” Rose’s tone left no room for argument and before Jack could find another way to question her she turned on her heel and walked away, effectively ending the conversation. 

Every time Jack had brought that night up with John or Rose they clammed up, claiming that it was a one-time job, a one-time exercise in working with a partner that was never to be repeated or discussed. 

It was supremely frustrating. 

Thoughts of what could have possibly happened kept the conman occupied for his entire walk across town to the location of his next appointment; Rose’s flat. He’d given her plenty of time to wake up before coming over. He was already dreading telling her that he was leaving because she’d become his best friend while he was in London and he really did not want to leave her behind. There was no way in hell that he was going to face a grumpy, caffeine-deprived Rose Tyler on top of that. 

Fixing a cheerful smile on his face, he knocked on the door. 

Rose opened it a few moments later, “Good timing, Jack! I just finished making lunch!” 

Jack cautiously sniffed the air. “Are you sure it’s safe to come in? And is lunch actually edible?” 

That earned him a swat on the arm. “Oi! Just because I don’t cook often doesn’t mean I’m not capable.” 

He started walking towards her kitchen, eying it warily. “Yes it does. There was that one time you almost burned down your flat while making toast. And then I’m pretty sure that chicken you made would have actually killed us if we’d eaten it. Oh and that…” He cut off when Rose shot him a deadly glare. 

“I get your point but a sandwich is one of the things I can manage an’ I have no problems throwing yours out if you don’t want it.” 

“No, I’m hungry so I’ll try anything.” He took a seat at the table and dove straight into the same line of conversation he’d tried at John’s. “Didn’t get to eat anything at my last stop.” 

“Oh? Where were you?” Rose asked, only half listening as she dug around in the fridge for a drink. 

“At John’s,” Jack said before taking a huge bite of the sandwich he’d deemed edible. 

Rose straightened so quickly that she hit her head on the fridge. Rubbing at the sore spot she directed another glare at the decidedly innocent looking conman. “Have I not made it clear that I never want to talk about that man ever again? Cause I was pretty sure I had.” 

Rose was still fuming over the fact that John had gotten one over on her. After all the buildup, the flirting and bickering and the thrill of the heist, she’d expected _something_ to happen between the two of them before they walked away and the expectation had caused the knife in the back to hurt even more. The betrayal and embarrassment and the anger were still boiling right under the surface. It didn’t help that she couldn’t forget exactly how fantastic those thirty seconds of being practically ravished by the hacker had been before he locked her in a filthy box. That had kind of put a damper on things. 

He had told her repeatedly that he didn’t trust anyone, didn’t trust her. But Rose thought she had changed his mind for this job. Stupid. 

“You know, he refuses to talk about you too.” 

“That better not be the only reason you came over today, Jack,” she said, ignoring his comment. 

“Can I not just come over to check on my favorite thief?” 

“You can but you don’t.” Rose took a seat across from Jack at the table. 

He let out a sigh, “I have news and you’re not going to like it. Hell, I don’t even like it.” 

“No use dragging it out then. Spill.” 

“I’m going back to the States next week. My bosses want me back where they can control me more closely.” 

Rose slowly put her sandwich. “Are you coming back?” 

“No, the move is permanent. And even if they send me somewhere else, they won’t send me back here.” 

“Jack…” Rose was fighting back tears. She hadn’t been expecting this at all. The conman was her best friend and if he disappeared back to America, she’d probably never see him again. 

“I know.” He had tears glistening in his eyes too. “There’s nothing I can do about it though. I’m not warning many people that I’m leaving. Just you and my previous stop really.” He reached across the table and put his hand on top of hers. “I won’t let this be goodbye though, Rose. I’ll find some way to stay in touch but it might take a while. You’re too good of a friend for me to just walk away.” 

“I’ll hunt you down if I don’t hear from you.” She said, trying to tease him like normal. 

“I taught you everything you know about tracking so you might be the only one who could.” 

“I’m gonna miss you, Jack. London won’t be the same without you.” 

“You’ll get by. You always do.” 

Slowly the two of them worked their way back to their normal flirty banter while they ate their food. By the time Jack stood up to leave, he knew that they’d be okay even with an ocean between them. 

Rose was pouring a glass of wine an hour later when her mobile rang. She glanced down, saw it was Jack and smiled as she answered and tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder. “Miss me already, Jack?” she laughed as she gathered her wine to take it to the sitting room. 

“I have a problem, Rose. Big problem. Agency size problem. I hate to ask for your help again but I need you.” Jack sounded panicked and it was only the second time Rose had heard him like this. 

“Of course. What do you need?” 

“I’m not sure this line is secure anymore. I’ll email you a location, can you meet me tomorrow around 9?” 

“Yeah, I’ll see you then.” 

Jack rung off without saying goodbye and Rose took a large gulp of her wine. _Here we go again_ she thought.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to see what kind of trouble Jack is in this time and how John and Rose react to seeing each other again.

The location Jack had given her was another office building, similar to the one where she’d met with John. Rose was again dressed in her best business casual attire; black slacks, light blue button down and black boots.

She was worried, Jack had sounded…weird…on the phone last night. Worried, definitely, but also weird so she was on high alert, trying to make sure she wasn’t walking into a trap.

Room 112 was closed and locked which did not surprise her much. She was half an hour early after all and Jack was notorious for showing up right on time if not a minute or two late.

The lock was pathetically easy to pick and it popped open in less than five seconds.

She stepped into the dark room and reached for the light switch.

Just as the florescent lights illuminated the room she caught sight of a man in the far corner and stiffened. That was definitely not Jack, the posture was all wrong.

“This is the second day in a row you’ve made me wake up early, Jack. I don’t appreciate it.” His back was to her and he was backlit by the window in front of him so she couldn’t see him very well but she knew that voice.

She knew it very well.

“You,” she snarled. “What the hell are you doing here?”

John turned quickly, shock painted on his face “I could ask you the same thing!”

She stalked towards him, all the rage that had been brewing for the past year bubbling to the surface. As soon as she was in range she raised her arm to slap him.

John caught her wrist before she made contact. Rose tried her other hand but he caught that too.

“Tsk tsk, resorting to violence Miss Tyler? How very disappointing,” he admonished.

Rose was struggling to free herself. Her eyes were locked with his and if looks could kill he would have died a fiery death the moment she heard his voice. “You bastard. You locked me in a box. A box! And then took your sweet fucking time getting the key to Jack. I _trusted_ you.”

She cursed internally; she hadn’t planned on ever telling him that.

“Well that was your first mistake,” John pointed out calmly.

Rose saw red. Between his casual dismissal of what he’d done and his calm demeanor she was furious and dammit he was going to pay somehow.

She redoubled her attempts to get free, forcing him to focus on keeping her arms contained while she positioned herself. When John was sufficiently distracted she used her foot to knock him off balance.

He went down as planned but he took her with him, pinning Rose beneath his considerable weight. “Second mistake was trying to take on someone a lot bigger than you in hand to hand combat. Shouldn’t let your emotions control you.”

John was desperately trying to ignore how it felt to have Rose underneath him, pressed against him and writhing to get free. It bore too much of a resemblance to dreams he’d had over the last year.

Granted, usually in those dreams she didn’t look ready to rip his throat out with her teeth.

Rose’s struggles paid off and she got one of her legs free. Immediately she brought her knee up to within an inch of John’s crotch. “I don’t need to take you down, I just need a little,” she pressed her knee up to press lightly against him in warning, “gentle persuasion.”

John froze instantly. “You don’t want to do that.”

“Oh I really think I do. You deserve it.”

They stared at each other trying to guess the other person’s next move until a voice broke their stalemate.

“Now as much as I’d like to know how this is going to play out and how you two ended up tangled on the floor in the first place, I really do need you both, preferably intact, to help me.” Jack’s voice sounded much too amused to the two former partners, but it was the urgency in his tone that had them cautiously letting each other go.

When Rose and John were back on their feet (and a safe distance from each other), they started shooting questions at him, talking over each other.

“What is he doing here, Jack?”

“You said you needed help.”

“I thought I made it perfectly clear how I felt about seeing him again.”

“Is that true or was it just a ruse to get the both of us here?”

Jack let out a shrill whistle, “Shut it. You’re both here because I need both of you. If I was just trying to get you in the same room, I would have used this ploy months ago. I didn’t tell either of you the other would be here because then neither of you would have shown.

“This isn’t a set-up; it’s a call to arms.”

He flicked his eyes from one to the other, noting how Rose was shifting her weight, guilty look on her face. John was a bit harder to read, standing still as a statue. Satisfied that he had their attention, Jack continued.

“It was brought to my attention after I left Rose’s flat yesterday that there’s a possibility the Agency still has a copy of the plans you two stole back for me.”

“Impossible. We wiped their systems and took all the copies they had,” John protested.

 “Well apparently we missed something,” Rose shot back acerbically.

Jack rolled his eyes at their antics. “Someone apparently put a copy onto a USB drive and stuck it in a safety deposit box before you two pulled the heist.”

“Well aren’t they thorough…” Rose muttered, still angry at both men in the room.

“They thought there was a chance I might try and get it back. Pretty sure they weren’t expecting you two to clean them out. Which by the way, they’re still trying to figure out how you guys did that and who you are.”

“Never gonna happen,” John said confidently.

“The existence of the USB and safety deposit box has not been completely confirmed but there’s enough merit to the claim that I need to act on it,” Jack said, trying to ignore the side comments his friends were making. He knew they weren’t happy about being reunited but they’d already proved that they could do what he needed them to do.

He just had to convince them that it was in their best interest to do it and do it together.

John paced over to the window again. “Is it still in London?”

“Yeah, I have the name of the bank, it’s right in the middle of town.”

“What do you want us to do, Jack? Rob the bank?” Rose asked.

“That’s exactly what I want you to do.”

She gave a derisive laugh, “We’re not bank robbers. We’re not even a team.”

“You two worked together brilliantly last time,” Jack pointed out.

“That was before I knew I couldn’t trust him! He locked me in a box in case you’ve forgotten. He ki-” she cut herself off abruptly. “He distracted me and then locked me in a freaking box.”

“I think we’re all well aware of that, Rose,” John chimed in. “You’ve mentioned it multiple times already.”

“Fuck you,” she sneered.

Looking back at Jack she continued making her point. “I can’t work with someone I can’t trust,” she said definitively. “Besides, if the Agency is still trying to find out who we are, how do we know this isn’t a trap?”

Jack rubbed at his temples, “We don’t.”

He had already thought of the possibility of it being a trap but he thought John would be the one to spot it, not Rose. He was generally the cynical one.

“Rose, I know this isn’t something you want to do but this is the same situation I was in last time I came to you for help. If I go back to the States with even the remote possibility that someone else has those plans in the air they’ll string me up by my balls and play with me before putting me out of my misery. And not in the fun way.

“If I thought someone else could do this job, I would go hire them. I wouldn’t be putting this on you and making the two of you work together again when obviously neither of you wants to even be in the same room.” Jack laid the pleading on thick, trying to impress onto Rose, onto both of them, how much he needed them to put aside their differences for one more job, “I wouldn’t be asking if this was not a desperate situation.”

“How long would it take your sources to confirm that the USB drive exists?” John questioned.

“Too long. I fly out of London in five days.”

Rose was still watching Jack with narrowed eyes. She knew he was using his skill as a conman to convince them to do what he wanted but her awareness did not make her immune.

“Fine, I’m in,” Rose said. “But only because you need help, I still don’t trust himself over there.” She jerked a thumb in John’s direction.

“You’ve made that abundantly clear,” he snarked, “but you need me to pull this off.”

He locked eyes with Jack, “I’m in too. There’s no way you could find someone else who could plan and execute a heist like this within your time frame and I’m not going to leave you hanging just ‘cause I don’t want to work with Blondie here.”

“Oi!” Rose exclaimed, offended at the nickname.

The smile he sent back was brimming with sarcasm.

“Excellent, I’ll get going then and let you two start working your magic,” Jack said, his delivery dripping with the innuendo they expected from him.

He handed them each a piece of paper with the address of a specific Barclays branch on it and strolled out of the room, leaving the two criminals staring at each other once again.

“So, looks like we’re going to be working together again,” John said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You up to the challenge?”

“Oh I’ve been keeping in shape, the question is if you’re,” her eyes travelled the length of his body slowly, unable to resist the flirt when he’d set her up so nicely, “up for it.”

She definitely enjoyed the view even if the man himself was as obnoxious as ever. He was clad in dark jeans, a green jumper and that leather jacket that he seemed to live in and damn if he wasn’t still as dead sexy as she remembered.

“You’re really going to go down that road again?” he asked, smirking. “Didn’t go too well for you last time.”

“Didn’t go too well for you either, only lasted thirty seconds before you ran away. Someone might think you just couldn’t handle me.”

“Oh, I could handle you alright.” John’s voice was lower than she’d ever heard it, caressing the words with care that he did not normally show.

Before Rose could deal with the rush of heat that had shot through her, he continued, voice in its normal register and unnervingly cheerful. “I don’t like to boast, but I’ve got the moves.”

Rose scoffed, “I’ve seen your moves, remember? Adequate at best.”

Lies. She was telling him bald-faced lies and just praying that he didn’t see through her con.

He sputtered. “Adequate? Funny, I seem to remember you rather enjoying yourself.”

Rose tossed her head before making a show of inspecting her nails, “I was in the middle of a dry spell. Anyone could have gotten me worked up at that point.”

She pasted a self-satisfied smirk on her face and met his eyes, “That’s no longer an issue though.”

More lies. That dry spell was still ongoing but there was no way in hell she was going to let John know that those thirty seconds were some of the hottest she’d ever experienced, dry spell or no.

She needed to gain control and if undermining his skill as a potential lover was the way to get it then so be it.

More than anything John wanted to growl at her and back her up against one of the walls in here and prove beyond a doubt that she was lying. He knew she’d been as affected by their very brief liaison at the end of the Agency job as he’d been; if she hadn’t she would not have protested as much about working with him again.

John knew better than to let her barbs get under his skin (she was a grifter after all) but she was hitting him right in the ego.

_Adequate_ , he mocked in his head.He practically made her see stars that night and they both knew it. It’s a wonder they hadn’t set anything on fire with the heat between them. He’d get revenge for _adequate_.

“Good for you,” he finally answered. “Let’s get back on topic though. Obviously we’re going to have to work together to finish this. It’s still a walkaway, a continuation of last time. After we make sure that USB drive is back in Jack’s hands I never want to see you again.”

“One show only,” she muttered. “Fine by me, you’re an arse.”

“And you’re just so easy to get along with yourself,” came the retort.

“Glad you noticed,” she said sweetly.

Rose was fairly certain at this point that half the things that came out of the hacker’s mouth were sarcastic. Or at least they were when dealing with her. She considered it an accomplishment to be honest, meant he was off balance.

John was fairly certain a few days in her company was going to drive him absolutely barmy. “Come on, we can go back to my place and get busy.”

“Now who’s the one starting us down that road again?” Rose said, eyebrows inching towards her hairline.

“Not what I meant,” he said with an eye roll. “We need to start planning this job and I already have computers set up on a secure network at my flat. Using them would be a lot faster than trying to set everything up at a neutral location. We’re wasting time standing here flapping our jaws as it is.”

“Fine, lead the way. Sooner we get started the sooner I can see the last of you,” she said gesturing towards the door.

As they exited the building and started walking towards John’s flat they were both wondering not how to get away with robbing a bank but how the hell they were going to survive working together again.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and John try to work together again but the consequences of what happened on their last job together are simmering just below the surface.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the long gap between chapters. I was incredibly stuck and busy with classes. I do promise that I will never be abandoning this story! Thanks for sticking with me through the incredibly sporadic updating!

Rose insisted on detouring to get chips on the way to John's flat despite the early hour. He had tried to object but had been unable to enforce his decision when she shot him a tongue touched grin and told him that it was never too early for chips.

By the time they reached his building he was ready to curse the existence of the fried treat. No one should sound or look like they're enjoying food that much. Rose licked the last traces of salt and vinegar off her fingers while John dug around in his pockets for his keys.

He jammed the key into the lock, turning it violently before pushing into his flat. Rose followed him in, looking around curiously. She was willing to admit that she had wondered what John's place looked like a few times.

Granted she'd imagined it as more of a high-tech lair than what appeared to be a rather normal, small flat.

The living room was the first space she entered and it was almost barren. There was a battered leather sofa and a low table in front of a television. There were no dirty glasses or abandoned snacks to indicate he spent significant time there though.

The kitchen was larger and looked like it was actually used, which surprised her a bit. Utensils were in a holder next to the stove and looked well-used, a spice rack on the counter was fully stocked and there were a few dishes in the sink. John seemed like the kind of guy who didn't take the time to cook and lived on takeout and microwave dinners but all the signs of a practical kitchen were in front of her.

It was certainly a more functional kitchen than hers was.

(She actually did live on takeout and microwave dinners.)

John looked like he was going to walk straight through the kitchen without stopping so Rose piped up. "Can I talk you out of a cuppa or a coffee or somethin' before we start? Chips made me thirsty and I can always use more caffeine."

"Fine," he grunted. Rose being in his flat was throwing off his equilibrium. It was like meshing two worlds that should not touch. But he'd been the one to volunteer his flat as a work space so he couldn't very well complain about it now.

Rose watched as he filled the kettle and grabbed two cups from the cabinet next to the fridge. He plopped two tea bags into the mugs and poured the water over them before proceeding to scowl at them, possibly trying to scare them into brewing faster.

Figuring that trying to talk to him at this point would be pushing her luck before they'd even started working, the thief took the opportunity to study him while he wasn't paying attention. His shoulders were tense under his ever-present leather jacket and she had to fight the urge to reach out and see if she could relieve the tension.

Damn if she wasn't still extremely drawn to the man; arrogant, backstabbing prat though he was.

"Milk?" John's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Ta. Sugar too, if you have it."

Rose stepped up to the counter to fix her tea with the provided milk and sugar, shooting sideways glances to see how the hacker took his tea (two sugars, no milk).

They leaned against opposite counters and stared at each other in stony silence while they sipped their tea.

Rose couldn't stand the silence for long though. "Nice place you've got here," she ventured. Seemed like a safe enough topic.

John shrugged. "Guess so." He drained the last of his cup and looked pointedly at her. "Finish up so we can get to work. No open containers in the workroom, equipment's too valuable to risk."

"And there you go again with the condescension. Was wonderin' when you were going to get around to it."

He just rolled his eyes at her.

She took a final sip and placed her mug next to his in the sink and waited for him to lead the way to his "workroom." The flat didn't seem big enough to have another room other than his bedroom and a loo down the hallway, much less a whole room dedicated to his work.

Instead of leading her down the hallway to the right of the kitchen, he went towards a door on the left that Rose had assumed was a cupboard.

She couldn't have been more wrong. The door led into a room the size of an entire flat and it was filled completely with state of the art equipment.

Rose had closed her mouth by the time she looked back at John but it didn't matter. He was smirking at her.

Smug bastard.

"How did you fit this room, then? I know your flat isn't this big."

"Obviously it is," he replied, walking towards his main workstation, feeling her glare intensify on his back. "I own the building, I had two flats connected and turned this one into my office."

"'You own the building,'" Rose mocked in a bad imitation of his accent. "Who the hell owns a building in London?"

"Me."

"Riiight." She rolled her eyes and watched him settle in at his workstation, ignoring her. "Got a place for me to set up or am I supposed to just stand here and look pretty?"

John could not resist the obvious setup. He ran his eyes over the woman in front of him, taking the time to appreciate how her button-down strained just slightly over her chest. "While I'm sure you think you'd be exceptional at that, there's a table over there that you can use."

He gestured towards a table on the other side of the room with a singular computer on it. It was connected to his secure server but not to his databases and private information and work. He could connect it with the right password but he preferred to have a "guest" computer that he didn't have to worry about someone using.

That being said, no one else had ever been in the room to use the guest computer but there was a first time for everything. Apparently that was especially true when Rose Tyler was involved, at least in his experience.

Plus, if she was over at the guest computer she would be out of his line of sight and therefore not as much of a distraction.

He wasn't even sure what she was going to do right now. They didn't have the blueprints yet or any information about the bank or which safety deposit box the alleged USB was in. He was going to have to hack the bank for their security information and then turn that over to Rose so she could pick it all apart and put together an entrance and exit strategy.

He stopped short when he realized he already knew exactly how they could work together after only one job over a year ago, what she was better at than he was. It was an uncomfortable realization; John hated working with anyone else and for very good reasons, he wasn't going to let the blonde thief be his exception.

He told her that she could use the computer and then focused in on his own screens, shutting out the rest of the room as he dove into the world of cyberspace that he knew so well.

Rose watched him for a moment before honing in on her own computer screen. She may not be a hacker but she knew how to get useful information as well.

She quickly navigated her way to the Barclays website and started browsing.

Rose fished a piece of paper out of her purse and started writing down relevant information like the hours of the bank and some various bits of information on opening an account and safety deposit box.

"John?" He did not move, made no indication that he had heard her at all. "Hello, Earth to the doctor, I have a question."

He still didn't even so much as twitch.

"Oi! I'm trying to ask a question here!" Rose said, considerably louder.

John jumped this time. "What?" he asked gruffly, annoyed at being interrupted.

"Your one-track mind strikes again," she said, shooting a teasing smile at him as she got up to walk closer to him, notes in hand. "I just wanted to know if there was a phone in here I could use or if I should go find a payphone or something."

"Who are you calling?"

Confused was a good look on him, she decided. "The bank. Going to make an appointment to meet with someone about possibly opening an account along with a safety deposit box. That way I can see inside before we pull the job."

"That's a stupid idea," John said flatly.

Rose bristled at his dismissal. "Why? Because you didn't think of it?"

"No, because it involves an unnecessary amount of risk." John thought he was doing an excellent job of remaining calm and patient.

The thief moved a few paces closer, leaving about five feet between them. "No it doesn't. People make appointments like this all the time; it won't be suspicious at all."

"If you go in, you'll be on their security footage and people will remember you," he said flatly. "Too much risk."

"They can't check out every single person who goes into the bank in the days leading up to a robbery!" Rose exclaimed, exasperated already. She'd remembered that working with John was frustrating but the memory did not do justice to dealing with it in the moment.

"And it's not like I'd be going as myself," she continued, "I have plenty of aliases and disguises that would work, the risk is practically non-existent!"

"You're not going." John said calmly as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

"The hell I'm not!" Rose exploded, throwing her hands in the air, eyes shooting daggers at the hacker. "You can't tell me what to do; we went over this last time. This is a perfectly sound method of getting eyes on the target. This isn't my first time casing a place, you know."

"I'm not questioning your ability, just the wisdom of putting yourself on camera at a place we'll be robbing soon." He got to his feet, pacing away from her.

He could not figure out how the two of them either worked together seamlessly or were at each other's throats. This is why he worked alone, people were so complicated.

"No, this is about the fact that you don't trust me to do my damn job. If you don't want to trust me as a person, fine. I learned my lesson about trust last time. But trust my ability as a thief."

"Thieves' honor? That's really what you're going with?"

Rose growled at him, actually growled, and looked like she might hurl herself across the room and actually try to rip out his throat. John was forcibly reminded of how her demeanor had struck him as wolfish when she had revealed her plan to clean out the Agency. It was even more apparent now; she definitely had something of the wolf about her.

"I'm not changin' my mind, Rose. Going to the bank is a stupid idea."

"It's not your decision to make! You can't just dictate to me." She clenched her fists and looked away from John for a moment.

"You know what?" she asked, suddenly reestablishing eye contact. "I don't know why I thought I could work with you again. You're insufferable and arrogant and don't listen to a bloody word I say."

She stalked over to the table she'd been working at and grabbed her bag before swinging back towards the door, movements jerky and tense.

"You don't want me here anyways. You've barely been tolerating my presence since we walked into your flat, so I'm gonna do both of us a favor here and leave."

"What about Jack? Some friend you are, if you're just going to leave him hanging."

Oh, he was treading on dangerous ground with, and he knew it.

"Don't you dare question my loyalty to my friends." Her voice was quiet, icy – a marked contrast to the fire and volume she'd brought to all of their other disagreements. "I never said that I was abandoning the job, just leaving you. This," she gestured between the two of them "is apparently not going to work a second time."

She smirked, not even bothering to hide the bitterness, "One show only, remember? No encores."

"So what, you're gonna walk out and try to do this job on your own then?"

"If that's what it takes, then yeah."

"You're not a bank robber."

"Neither are you."

"You don't know that."

She scoffed, "Please. You're not a bank robber. You would've gloated about it already if you were."

"I know more about banks than you do," he tried. He wasn't sure exactly why he was fighting so hard to get her to stay but it felt imperative that she did and not only because it would take the two of them to pull off this heist.

"You don't know that because you haven't asked me a single question about what I might know!" Rose shot back. "You haven't told me a damn thing about what you're working on so it's like I've been working by myself anyways!" Rose yanked the hand she had been gesticulating with through her hair in frustration.

John took a few steps towards her, his long strides covering the space separating them quickly. She swerved around him and made for the door. He reached out and grabbed her arm as she passed.

The thief slapped at his hand. "Don't touch me."

He let go as if he'd been burned.

Rose reached for the doorknob and something in John snapped.

"No. You're not leaving." He reached past her and pushed the door closed, caging her against it with his arms. "You're just still angry at me for kissing you and then leaving you in the police box. And if that's why you are walking out right now then you need to stop and grow the hell up."

Rose glanced at the leather-coated limbs trapping her before glaring up at him, eyes dark with anger. "Damn right I'm still angry at you for that but I'm leaving because I can't trust you and you can't trust me and I can't work that way."

"Trust is not a necessary element in our line of work."

"Maybe not for you but it is for me!"

"Dammit Rose, I don't trust anyone, it's not personal!"

"It feels personal!" She said, poking him in the chest, her face moving closer to his in defiance. "It feels very personal because you made it personal when you locked me in that fucking box and left me there!"

"Actually, I think I made it personal before locking you in the box," he growled, remembering just how personal they had gotten.

Rose's breath hitched as his eyes flickered down to her mouth. "We're not talking about that."

"Why would I want to talk?" he countered before leaning down and capturing her mouth with his, pressing her body against the door with his own.


	10. Chapter 10

Rose was shocked but she melted into the kiss for a few moments like she had in her dreams for the past year. It was only a couple of seconds before her brain caught up with her body though and she wrenched her mouth away and pushed at John's chest.

"What the hell, John? You can't just kiss me like that!" Her whole body was tingling and it was an effort not to pull him back down and snog the life out of him.

The hacker quickly stepped back and ran a hand over his cropped hair and then down his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't really plan that. We were fighting and you were right there and…" he trailed off. "There's no excuse for that, I'm sorry."

The only word ringing in his head was a resounding _fuck_. That had been the exact wrong thing to do but he'd given in to the magnetism that kept pulling him towards her, let logic and sense fly out the window when she tried to leave. Now she was glaring daggers at him and all he could think of was the feel of her lips moving across his and the fact that he could still taste her.

_Fuck_.

Rose scrutinized his face, trying to judge his sincerity. Slowly, she smiled. "Apology accepted, just don't ambush me like that again in the middle of an argument."

"Does that mean you're planning on staying and having more arguments with me while we plan a bank heist?" He tried not to sound hopeful but he knew he wasn't successful. What was it about her? He wanted her to stay but when she was around she drove him absolutely barmy.

"Maybe, we probably need to talk though." Rose giggled at the look on his face, dispelling the tension. "You don't have to look so terrified at the thought of talking. I promise I don't bite."

"That's debatable," he shot back. "Earlier you looked like a wolf about to launch herself at me and tear my throat out with her teeth."

"I thought about it," Rose said, smiling sweetly as she appropriated his chair for herself.

"In that case…" he backed away, hands in the air and a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.

"Git," she said. "Grab a chair and come over here, I wasn't kidding about the talking thing."

He huffed but did as he was told, sitting just out of arms reach from Rose.

"What do we need to talk about?"

"What _don't_ we need to talk about?" She asked sardonically. "The main problem right now is we're trying to work as individuals instead of as a team and we need to be a team for this to work."

John had been expecting her to try and talk about whatever it was between them, about the kisses, hence his nervousness. He was sure she'd work around to it and ambush him as soon as he let his guard down. That's just how Rose worked.

"Is this going to be another conversation about trust?"

"Probably."

"I think I've made myself clear on that front." He crossed his arms over his chest and leveled a cool gaze on her.

"You have." Rose met his glare with a smile that was more terrifying than any smile had a right to be. There was no malice in it but it still set John on edge. "Obviously I'm not going to change your mind since you're about as stubborn as me but I need to be able to trust you at least a little bit or else this isn't going to work at all."

She glanced at him, trying to read any emotions off of his face that would give her an idea of how to proceed but he'd put on that impassive mask that he was so damn good at and was giving her nothing.

"I mean, right now I'm finding it real hard to find even a grain of trust in relation to our temporary partnership. The bottom line is that you betrayed me at the end of our last job." He tried to interrupt her but Rose held up a finger and kept talking. "No qualifications. You cut me out because you didn't trust me and I don't forgive things like that easily. If Jack didn't need us I would've been happy to never see you again."

"Well that's nice," John cut in acidly.

Rose just glared at him. "That's not even takin' into consideration that you have an annoying habit of making decisions for me and not letting me in on what you're working on even when it involves work I need to do as well."

"You don't exactly jump to let me know what you're doing either," he pointed out.

"Okay, it's something we both need to work on then," she conceded. "The thing is, John, I don't know anythin' about you except that you're a doctor and a hacker and it's hard to work with someone I don't know."

"I'm not spilling my life story just because you've some misguided notion that you need to know me." There was no way John was going to dredge up his past just to satisfy her curiosity. She was a conwoman and there was no telling what she'd do with the information she got.

Trust was not a luxury he could afford no matter how much money he had or how much he found himself liking his partner. Rose kept harping on it like he would just change his mind all of a sudden but he just couldn't. He knew exactly where misplaced trust led and he was not going down that road again.

Rose reached out with her foot and nudged his knee. "I don't need to know the dirty details, just want to get a sense of who you are as a person. Like…" she trailed off, trying to think of an easy question to start things off. "How do you take your tea?"

"That's really what you're going to ask?"

"Shut up and answer the question."

"I don't think I can do both of those at the same time."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Answer the question, John."

"I take my tea with two sugars, no milk."

"See that wasn't so bad, was it? I take mine with one sugar and a splash of milk, in case you were wondering."

"I wasn't," he lied.

John was determined to keep up the façade that he cared nothing about her life even though he thought about it often, wondered what she liked to do when not planning robberies and stealing blueprints for fun. Those kinds of thoughts veered towards an interest in her that was more than merely physical so he tried to ignore them.

He could deal with wanting to drag his partner to a bed and not let her leave for hours, could deal with the musings about what the sounds she'd make as she came for him. Any interest beyond that he would deny vehemently.

"Alright, umm, what did you do with your cut of the money from the Agency job?"

His eyebrows flew up his forehead, "That's quite the jump from asking about tea!"

"Couldn't think of a good intermediate question," Rose admitted. "At least not without gettin' too personal for you."

"Good to know that asking about money doesn't rate as a personal question with you."

The thief smiled, a feral gleam present once more in her eyes. "Money is business, not personal."

John chuckled. "That's true."

He didn't say anything more and Rose nudged him with her foot again.

"Fine, I bought a few things for in here," he gestured around to the state-of-the-art technology all around them.

"That doesn't nearly cover all the money we got away with," she said.

After a moment's deliberation he decided to just tell her the truth about what he'd done with the money. "Gave the rest away to people who needed it more than me," he said with a shrug.

Rose's mouth dropped open but he didn't see since he was pointedly not looking at her, trying to downplay his words.

"But that's what I did!"

His head snapped up. "You did what?"

"I donated most of my cut too. Don't need that much to live on and I know what it's like to not have enough to eat." This time it was Rose who shrugged and looked away. She didn't want to go into her past any more than John wanted to go into his.

"Well we're quite the pair aren't we?" John said, shaking his head, one corner of his mouth twitching upwards in amusement. "Regular Robin Hoods, we are."

"Quite. I knew there was a heart somewhere under the sarcasm and leather and lack of trust," she teased, tongue sneaking out to play with the corner of her mouth. "And see, just knowing that makes me want to trust you a little bit."

"Does that mean we can be done yappin' and get back to work?" John's head was still spinning from the revelation that Rose hadn't kept the money either so the rejoinder came out a bit harsher than he intended.

"It means that we can get back to work, but we're not done talking, not by a longshot."

John groaned theatrically, rolling his eyes. Rose just continued talking. "We haven't _really_ talked about how you like to tell me what to do without listening to anything I have to say. But we can deal with that if it becomes an issue again."

"Can I have my chair back now?"

"No, I might give it back when I've forgiven you but maybe not. It is rather comfortable." Rose bounced in the seat a little to emphasize her point, smirking as her partner's gaze dropped and jaw slackened a bit with the movement.

"I thought you'd already forgiven me?" John sounded very confused as he flicked his eyes back up to meet hers.

"I forgave you for ambushin' me with a kiss." She levelled a cool glare at him. "I haven't forgotten about the fact that you tried to accuse me of leaving Jack high and dry by walking out though. You have some work to do to make me forgive you for that one."

"Ah."

"Right then. To work?"

John gestured for Rose to move out from in front of his workstation and settled in at his computers again, pulling up the info he'd gathered to share with Rose.

"I still think you going into the bank beforehand is not a good play," he said, still typing away.

"It wouldn't be putting the job in jeopardy. I could get a sense of what the area was like and what it would take to infiltrate. Plus I could see the actual boxes and know what I would need to crack them," Rose argued.

"Can't you do the same amount of recon if I hack the camera feeds and a blueprint?"

"Technically, yes. But I prefer to get an in-person look if it's at all possible and it's very possible for this job."

"Possible, yes. Advisable? No."

"You're a stubborn bastard, you know," Rose said, no heat behind her words.

"So I've been told."

He shot a wicked little smile at her over his shoulder and Rose felt something in her stomach clench. She could still taste him on her lips and it was distracting. She may have not been expecting the kiss and might have rightfully told him off for springing it on her but there was no denying that there was still a spark between the two of them.

Lots of sparks. Damn near a fire actually.

She just had to try and ignore it until they were done working together. Maybe things would go her way at the end of the job this time and she could finally see what was under those tight jeans.

"You haven't explained why you think it's such a bad idea for me to go in."

"Someone will remember you. You're charismatic, you'll make an impression. If you just use the blueprints and camera feeds like you did for the Agency you won't run that risk."

Rose cocked her head to the side. "I'm not sure whether to take that as a compliment or an insult."

"What?" John spun around in his chair to face her again, letting his program run unsupervised for a moment. He'd just been using it as an excuse to turn away in the first place.

"You managed to compliment me as a person and insult my skills as a grifter at the same time. If I don't want people to remember me, they won't. I'm very good at not drawing attention to myself if it's necessary."

"I find that hard to believe." John quipped, running his eyes over her slowly again. "You seem like the kind who goes for the flash in order to distract people from what you're really doing. Flash is memorable."

"Oi, insulting my skills again!"

"Am I wrong?"

Rose glared at him, "No. But I'm perfectly capable of being nondescript as well!"

He looked insufferably smug. "So do you agree that it would be safer to work off blueprints and video feeds then?"

"Fine, yes I agree. Get back to work then and get me something to work with."

"Yes ma'am," he said, sketching a salute at her before turning back to his screens.

"Idiot," she muttered, settling in to wait.

"Talented idiot," he amended for her. "Go check the printer, there are some basics for you start working with."

She took the chair with her and went back to the table she had set up at earlier, spreading the papers out in front of her. There were street maps of the area surrounding the bank, maps with all the buildings labeled, lists of the hours of the bank and surrounding buildings and their general dimensions.

"You were paying attention to how I set things up on the Agency job, weren't you?" Rose said, surprised. This was all information that she would have looked up herself as she organized a heist.

"Course I was, always interested in seeing how other people's minds work."

"Just don't like working with them?"

"Hate it. Prefer working against them."

Rose didn't even bother answering that one. She kept having to remind herself that they were just two people working together out of necessity, not an actual team. Comments like that helped bring it home.

She buried herself in organizing all the data John had procured for her, she just needed to ground herself in the work and ignore the politics involved in negotiating this weird non-partnership with John.

This is why she typically avoided working with others. It was too hard to try and mesh opposing styles and personalities. And it didn't get much more opposite than her and John. She knew there was potential for the two of them to work extremely well together. They'd done it on the Agency job most of the time. Now though there were two kisses, a betrayal and a lack of trust hanging heavily in the air between them and she did not want to deal with it.

Life would have been so much simpler if she'd never met the infuriating hacker. She let a rueful smile play across her face as she shook her head, much simpler, yes, but probably much less interesting as well.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Longer chapter to help make up for my long gap between updates! Here be some fluff and talking and a tad bit of arguing starring our favorite two bank robbers in the making as they plan their first bank heist.

John and Rose worked for a few hours with only a handful of brief exchanges when one of them had a question. It reminded John of when they were prepping for agency job. Now that the argument was behind them things were going just as smoothly as their previous job, if not more so since he knew approximately how his partner worked.

He was trying to figure out how to get past one of the bank's firewalls when Rose's voice interrupted his train of thought. He didn't quite catch what she said so he swiveled around in his chair and levelled a questioning look at her.

"One track mind. I remember," she teased with a wink. "I asked if you were hungry. I'm starving."

"No," he said shortly, trying to ignore the fact that the tips of his ears had probably turned pink thanks to that little wink.

"Oh come on, you have to eat sometime. Might as well be when I'm eating!"

John rolled his eyes but since he did not want to start another argument over something as trivial as food he grunted out an agreement.[[MORE]]

"Not chips though," he warned. Watching Rose eat chips once in a day was all he could handle.

There was a brief pout from his partner. "Fine, think I saw a Chinese place down on the corner on the way here."

He looked at her blankly and she laughed again. "Don't tell me you didn't know there was a Chinese place literally down the block from you!"

"Don't eat much takeout, me."

"I live on the stuff. Judging from your kitchen I'm guessing you can cook?"

John nodded, "Guessing you don't? Cook, that is."

"God no. I almost burned down my flat making toast and Jack will claim that I almost murdered him with my chicken experiment." She paused and grinned unapologetically, "Probably would have given him food poisoning at the very least."

"Better go for takeout then," he said, suppressing a smile at the mental image of Rose setting her kitchen on fire while making toast.

"Come on then." Rose grabbed her purse and started walking towards the door.

John ran a hand over his face, wondering how the hell she managed to get him to do whatever she wanted. He snagged his jacket from the back of the chair and shrugged it on as he followed her.

Rose ended up paying for the food since John left his wallet in his flat. She teased him about doing it on purpose the entire walk back to his place. They settled down on the sofa and spread out the boxes of takeout on the coffee table.

John immediately dove into his food, practically shoveling it into his mouth.

"Thought you said you weren't hungry," Rose commented before biting into an eggroll.

He looked up sheepishly, swallowing before opening his mouth to answer. "Might've been hungrier than I realized. Don't typically eat much when I'm working."

"Is that something you've always done or just an acquired skill?"

John glanced up, mouth full of food again. He couldn't tell if she was just asking an idle question or digging for information on his past again. "Acquired skill," he bit out.

There was no way in hell he was going to tell her how and why he acquired it. He'd left behind that part of his life and erased every connection to it that he could find for very good reasons.

Rose picked up on the sudden tension. "Sorry, wasn't actually meaning to pry that time. Figured food and eating were safe topics but I kind of wandered off there."

She glanced away as she poked a piece of chicken around her carton. "I'm more likely to have regular meals all the time, working or not. There were too many years of not enough to eat." She shrugged, still not meeting his eyes, "Still feels like a luxury I should take advantage of, regular meals."

John just stared at her. He had not been expecting a little glimpse into Rose's past. So far, she'd kept as quiet about her past as he did about his and he had no idea what to do with the new knowledge that his partner had apparently gone years without regular meals. What the hell did she want him to do with that information?

There was a little voice in the back of his mind that was telling him that she could have just made it up as a play for sympathy. It was the same voice that told him that everyone was going to betray him, told him not to trust anyone or anything. For a moment though, he wanted to ignore it though and just accept Rose's words at face value. He couldn't though. That little voice had been proven right too many times for him to just disregard it. He had excellent reasons for his lack of trust even if his partner was unwilling, or unable, to completely understand that.

While John was silently digesting her information, Rose was panicking. She hadn't really meant to share that much. John did not need to hear her whole sad story, especially when it was likely she would never see him again after this job. She couldn't help but want to talk to him though. There was just something about him that drew her to him, some sort of magnetism that she couldn't for the life of her explain.

"Sorry, getting personal again. How is worming your way into the bank's system going for you?" Rose asked, desperate to reroute the conversation.

He looked at her suspiciously. "On the way to get food you said no talking about the job while we were eating. I distinctly remember you threatening the continued existence of my bits if I brought up the job. Said you needed a break."

"I did, I took one and now I'm lifting the moratorium on shop talk. Plus, I can't think of anything else to talk about that won't end up with us at each other's throats."

If she wanted to change the topic, he could definitely help with that. She'd set him up perfectly.

John deliberately let his eyes drop to her neck and licked his lips before dragging his eyes up to meet hers again, noting how her pupils had dilated. "That could be fun," he said, voice low.

"Not-" Rose swallowed, trying to get her voice under control, "not what I meant."

"No?" He raised his eyebrows. "My mistake," he continued in a jovial tone, all hint of seduction gone. "I'm gettin' close to completely infiltrating the bank's system. A few more hours and I'll have the completely up to date security specs, blueprints and the list of who owns which safety deposit box."

Rose blinked quickly as she tried to regain her equilibrium after John's rapid mood shifts. "Okay, I've got an hour or two more work that I can do with the info you already got me."

She started gathering up the empty cartons of takeout. John watched her move around the kitchen as she put the remaining food in the refrigerator and dumped the empties in the kitchen trash. He couldn't help thinking that she probably looked at home anywhere but it was strange to see her move around _his_ kitchen, completely at ease. This was his space and she just slotted in so effortlessly and it baffled him. It was so… _domestic_.

There was a tiny, traitorous part of him that didn't mind, that urged him to make seeing Rose look at home in his flat a frequent occurrence. Most of him rebelled against letting someone in that close though and that's the part that won out. Without a word to the woman puttering around in his kitchen, making herself a cup of tea, he headed back into his workroom.

Rose heard the door close, a little more forcefully than necessary, in her opinion. She sighed, it was constantly one step forward and one step back with this man. She could never quite get a read on him and it frustrated her. Reading people was part of her livelihood and for the life of her, she could never figure out what was going to set him off or when he'd decide to flirt instead of run.

Speaking of running, why the hell had he run off this time, anyways? He could've just been impatient to get back to work after she dragged him away for food but the slammed door suggested otherwise. She was fairly sure it wasn't something she'd said this time. All she'd done was take care of the leftovers and trash and then put the kettle on, nothing to earn censure as far as she could tell. The man was just an enigma, she concluded.

Rose poured the boiling water into the two mugs and set about making tea for the both of them. At least she would go back to work with a peace offering for whatever he'd found fault with this time.

John murmured a thank you without looking up when Rose set a cup of tea made the way he liked on his desk as she passed by. She'd poured it into a travel mug before walking in, remembering what he'd said about no open containers in the workroom.

At least he'd acknowledged it, she thought as she settled down at her table. While John was trying to get into their target's system, Rose was building profiles on the surrounding businesses and buildings. They needed to know when people might potentially be going in and out of the buildings and what went on them. It helped minimize their risk of being seen and gave potential entry and exit strategies for the connected buildings.

It was a giant puzzle, figuring out the schedules of each individual business, many of which were small and private, and who might be working there. Rose was fitting all the pieces together to find the best time and way to hit the bank where a backup of Jack's plans might be hidden.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

It was a few hours after Rose had brought him tea when John next looked up to see how she was faring. A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth when he saw her. Her head was down on the table and she appeared to be fast asleep, tendrils of blonde hair all over her face and the papers she'd been working with.

John quietly pushed back from his desk and walked over to his partner. He hesitated before laying a hand on her shoulder.

Rose jerked awake at the touch. "Sorry, didn't mean to fall asleep." She yawned through her next words. "Didn't get much sleep last night, was worried about Jack after he called me."

"If you're done with all this, there's no reason not to take a kip. It's takin' me a bit longer than I anticipated to get into their systems. There are more comfortable spots than right here, though."

He offered her his hand. She barely hesitated before taking it, palm pressing against his as she curled her fingers around. John pulled her to her feet and led her out of the workroom and towards the one room in the flat she hadn't been yet.

When they reached the doorway to his bedroom, he lightly pushed her inside, pointedly ignoring her questioning look. "Sheets are clean. I'll wake you up when I have something new for you to work on."

He started to turn, planning on walking away before his brain started conjuring more images of Rose asleep in his bed than it already had, but Rose's hand on his arm stopped him.

"John, can I borrow a t-shirt or something?" She tugged at the hem of her button-down shirt. "Buttons aren't the comfiest thing to sleep on."

He moved into the room and fished out one of his white undershirts and a pair of athletic shorts from a drawer and thrust them at her without a word. She took them with a quiet thank you.

This time when he went to make his retreat, Rose didn't stop him. She quickly changed into the clothes he'd given her, guiltily enjoying the smell of the detergent he used, the smell of _John_ , that engulfed her. She crawled into his bed, a place she'd imagined more often than she'd like to admit, and snuggled up with one of her pillows. Surrounded by his scent and in his inner sanctum, Rose quickly dropped back off into sleep, trying not to think about the fact that she was completely infatuated with the man.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

John was standing in the kitchen, staring at the coffee he'd made and trying desperately not to think about the woman currently in his bedroom. Why had he thought this was a good idea? It was the height of domestic, letting her sleep in his bed, wearing his clothes.

And yet, he wanted to see her drowning in his t-shirt and moving around his kitchen making tea.

He wanted to slip into his room and curl up next to her more than he wanted to break through the bank's security.

This _want_ was so different from what he normally felt and it terrified the hacker. He was fine with wanting Rose physically, she was gorgeous after all and he had eyes. But this went beyond that and he had no idea what to do with these errant thoughts and desires.

Running his hand down his face, he downed his cup of coffee, shot one more glance at the hallway that led to his bedroom and then walked back to the workroom.

The bank's computer security was much more sophisticated than John had been expecting. He was starting to suspect that the Agency had already hacked in and reinforced the security after storing the plans there. It was the only thing that seemed to make sense.

He was getting close though. There were chinks in their defenses that he knew to look for after years of familiarity with Agency programmers and their designs.

If he could just find this one subroutine that was always included he could exploit it and be in. Whoever was in charge of this project had done a better job of hiding it than most did and it was giving him fits.

It was probably for the best that he had a complicated problem at hand to distract him from thinking too much about the blonde in his bed that he had no idea what to do with. He was trying to keep her at a distance like he did everyone else but there was just _something_ that kept drawing him in. Something that made offers to work at his flat and sleep in his bed slip out of his mouth before he finished thinking it through. It was thoroughly, _thoroughly_ , domestic and the exact opposite of what he normally did. Yet the urge to just stay and have her stay was as strong as his usual urge to run and he didn't know what that meant.

And the constant flirting and fighting! They were always doing one or the other and it was driving John barmy. There was all this passion flying about and he never quite knew what to expect, from himself or from her.

(It seemed that when Rose Tyler was around there was a lot he didn't know.)

Maybe, just maybe, after this job they could finally do something about all this tension and attraction before they parted ways.

His thoughts blissfully focused on the different ways they could go about dispelling the tension before he realized that he was doing exactly what he was trying not to and forcibly dragged himself back on track. He needed to figure out the bank's security before he could attempt to figure out Rose.

John worked for another hour before he finally found the subroutine he was looking for. A ruthless smile spread over his face as he started keying in the commands that would allow him to slip past the security. The Agency never changed.

It was finicky work, getting in through this particular subroutine so it was an additional hour before he was in. Once there, he began printing all the documents Rose would need to put together her plan, saving them all to his server so he could look at them as well. He stacked them on the table she had appropriated as her own, glancing at all the profiles of the surrounding buildings and businesses that she had put together earlier as he did so.

His partner did extremely thorough work, he had to admit. Thorough enough that he could probably not tell her about the confirmation that this was very likely a trap and she would still be able to get them in and out without a hitch. Telling her was bound to lead to all sorts of questions that he absolutely did not want to answer so he determined that this was a bit of information he could keep to himself until he decided that it was necessary to share it.

Slowly, John left the workroom and walked back toward his bedroom. He needed to wake Rose up but he had not determined the best way to do it. If he were any sort of gentleman he would probably just knock and call to her through the door to let her know that naptime was over.

John had never been a gentleman though.

He opened the door quietly and slipped into his room. He sucked in a breath at the sight before him. This had been the danger of this approach of waking his partner. He was never going to be able to forget the way she looked in his clothes and in his bed.

Rose was curled around one of his pillows, clutching it to her chest. His t-shirt had ridden up, revealing a few inches of skin that his fingers were itching to explore and find out it was as soft as it looked. They had a bad case of wanderlust, his fingers did. They wanted to run through the tangled strands of gold that were fanned underneath her head. They wanted to trail up her long legs until they reached the hem of the shorts he had lent her and pull them down so they could continue their exploration.

Swallowing hard and trying to dispel those thoughts, John reached out and shook her shoulder. "Time to wake up, Rose. Can't have you sleeping the day away when there's work to do."

Her eyes fluttered open and John almost groaned when they locked in on his. Instead of the fiery gazes and icy glares from earlier, there was a soft look in her whiskey colored eyes. There were no walls erected in them and he suddenly understood why people said eyes were the windows to the soul.

A small smile flitted over her face and then he saw her remember exactly where she was and what was going on. The walls and shields slammed up in her eyes, making her look more like the cagey thief he had been working with instead of the soft woman wearing his shirt in his bed. It was a subtle difference, one made only by the variation in expression, but a distinction he needed to make and remember. The version of Rose that had haunted his dreams for the last year was not the one in front of him. This one was the one he needed to work with, not pin to his mattress and show off the stamina she'd questioned so long ago.

"'Kay, I'm awake. Can you put the kettle on while I get dressed?" Her voice was rough from sleep and jarred him from his thoughts.

John nodded tersely before turning on his heel and leaving the room.

Rose sighed as she watched him go. It had been lovely waking up to him right in front of her. She'd thought it was a dream for a few seconds before she remembered why John would be waking her up. From the way he had just practically fled the room, Rose assumed that in the time she was asleep, John had remembered that he didn't let people anywhere near him. Walls that had slowly been coming down a little bit at a time as they spent time together were back at their full height.

She wouldn't be getting an invitation to sleep in his bed in his clothes again anytime soon.

Sighing again, she stripped off his clothes and folded them before slipping into her own again and heading towards the kitchen.

As soon as she stepped foot in the kitchen, John thrust a mug into Rose's hand. Glancing down, Rose realized that he had made it the way she had told him she liked earlier. A soft smile spread across her face as she brought the mug to her lips.

"So, you finish getting into the bank's system?"

John leaned back against the counter, crossing his arms across his chest. "Yep, printed everything I thought you might need and left it on the table in there." He jerked his head towards the workroom door.

"Brilliant. Do you know why their online security was tighter than you expected?" Rose caught the startled look he gave her at this question. "Don't give me that. It took you a lot longer than what you anticipated to get in and that means something was off."

"Think the Agency might have reinforced their security when they chose to hide the USB drive there," he said gruffly, shifting his eyes away from hers.

"Makes it more likely that we're walking into a trap then, if they're expecting someone to make a try for the drive."

"Yeah, thought of that already."

"And you were planning on telling me this, yeah?" Rose asked, narrowing her eyes at him. He was acting shifty.

John hesitated a second too long.

"You weren't were you?" She slammed her mug of tea down on the counter, uncaring that it sloshed over the sides. "This is exactly why it's so hard to work with you, John! Every time I think I can trust you enough to get this job done and over with, you pull shit like this!" Rose's voice got louder as she went on.

"I would've told you eventually if it seemed like it really was a trap," John said, voice staying level.

"I should be a part of that decision! It affects me as well."

"Hasn't anyone ever told you it's not all about you?" John could feel his temper getting the better of him again and made no move to rein it in. "You talk and talk and talk about trust and honesty but I don't see you making any effort to be trustworthy like you expect me to do." He moved closer the blonde, crowding her against the opposite counter from where he'd been leaning. "I don't have to tell you everything. Just because we're working together doesn't entitle you to know everything that I do."

"It's not all about you either! And I have a right to know things that involve this job and its safety." She glared up at him, chin thrusting out stubbornly. "There are reasons dishonesty is stupid."

John scoffed, rolling his eyes. "You should print that on a card. Would save you from saying it every two minutes."

"You're a bastard."

"So you've said." John backed off and started towards the workroom. This argument was going nowhere and wasn't going to accomplish anything in his opinion. So far it was just serving to stir up grievances that they'd already fought over and weren't going to agree on.

"No, you don't get to just walk away from this." Rose said, following after him, frustration and anger simmering just below the surface. "How do you know it was the Agency that upped the bank's security?"

"Recognized it," John bit out. He wanted to refuse to answer her questions because she would just keep asking them and prying information out that he did not want to share, but she was right in what she said earlier. If it involved the job, it involved her.

He just wasn't going to admit it to her.

Rose cocked an eyebrow at that but didn't pursue the implication that he'd gone against Agency security like this in the past. "Fine, as long as you're sure it's them."

"I am."

Rose closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to let go of the anger. "Okay, thanks for telling me. I need to have all the information if I'm going to be able to make an effective plan to get in and out of the bank."

She walked up to him and rested a hand on his arm. "I'm really not trying to pry or invade your privacy or anythin'. I just need to know that you'll tell me things that are related to this heist. If I don't have all the information, we might not get out clean. So from now on you'll tell me if you find something?"

Brown eyes met blue for a long moment as she watched for any sign of dishonesty, letting him see that she was serious.

"I'll try," he said finally.

Rose smiled at his answer. The shift from her neutral expression almost dazzled John. He glanced down briefly at her lips, thinking of how their last argument had ended and remembering how the taste of her had lingered on his lips. That wasn't the road they were going down this time though, they had work to do. Thoughts of an encore, of a longer performance that might end in her wearing his shirt again, would have to wait until later.

He opened the door to the workroom and gestured for her to go in. It was time to plan their first bank robbery.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *pokes head out* yes I promise I'm still working on this. Sorry about the really long gap between updates (again). Can't promise I'll get any better since this semester is super busy. BUT there is an actual bank robbery in this chapter! I've been telling you it's a bank robber au and look! they're actually robbing a bank now! Hope you enjoy! (Also there's a Leverage reference in here if you watch that show. It was definitely part of the inspiration for this fic) Thanks for sticking with me!

They got right down to work, diving into the information he’d attainted and trying to devise a plan of attack. John focused on the security systems while Rose was acquainting herself with the blueprints and combining all of the information at her disposal.

Since John understood the basics of how Rose’s system worked now, he helped organize all of the printed material as they formulated a variety of different plans. Despite all of the arguments they’d had over the course of the day, John and Rose worked together smoothly, both having completely engrossed in the puzzle of breaking the bank. They bounced ideas off one another, debating the best ways to get past certain security measures and who would be tackling the different parts of the heist.

The only information that was kept on the on-site servers that they would need was the list of which safety deposit boxes belonged to whom. John had thought that would be in the information that he had hacked but they kept that information on a separate server that was located in the bank, on-site access only.

Rose would be going into the vault since part of the security was a pressure sensitive floor that she assured John she could handle as long as he could help get her past the security on the vault door. John would tackle the on-site servers while she dismantled the pressure sensitivity in the vault so he could safely enter and then they’d take on the safety deposit boxes together since they all required two keys and simultaneous lock picking.

When Rose started yawning again, they decided to part ways for the night after some teasing from John about her needing so much sleep. That aside, John and Rose were both happy with the plan they had put together. They may not have been bank robbers before the start of this job but they were each secretly starting to believe that if the two of them could manage to work together without killing one another, they very well could accomplish anything, bank robbing included.

\-----------------------------------

Eighteen hours after she left John’s flat, Rose strolled into an empty office overlooking the target bank, duffel bag slung over her shoulder. It was half an hour past midnight and they were supposed to be meeting in fifteen minutes. Tonight was the night and Rose could already feel the adrenaline pumping as she started laying out some of her equipment. For once, she’d made it to a meeting before John and she was already planning on gloating about it.

“’Bout time you got here,” she tossed over her shoulder when she heard the tell-tale sound of work boots on the floor behind her a couple minutes later.

John grunted. “You specifically got here early just to try and beat me, didn’t you?”

“Maybe.” Rose turned to face him, tongue perched between her teeth as she smiled at him. “You ready for this?”

The corner of his mouth twitched up. “As I’ll ever be. You got everything ready?”

Rose slipped a black cap on, tucking her braid inside. “Yeah. Want to use the coms again? We shouldn’t be split up as much this time but they could still be useful.”

“Might as well,” he acquiesced.

She watched as he inserted the device in his ear, sweeping her eyes up and down his body. He was dressed exactly like he always was. Black jumper, black trousers, and those battered work boots. He had also added his own black hat to the ensemble, which was the only different piece. He’d shed the leather jacket for the job but Rose was willing to bet that it was folded up in the bottom of his bag so he had it for afterwards. John was very attached to that jacket and she had to admit that it suited him.

He glanced up just as she finished looking him over and smirked, letting her know that she’d been caught and made sure she was looking as he dragged his eyes over her, lingering on how her skintight clothes clung to her curves.

Rose was sure he was going to say _something_ about this whole exchange, about this tension finally, but he just shot her a wicked little grin before turning back towards the door.  “Grab your gear and let’s go steal a USB drive.”

She followed him out, slinging her bag over her shoulder again. “You make it sound so simple. ‘Let’s go steal a USB drive,’” she mocked in an awful attempt at mimicking his accent.

He winced. “Please tell me you have other accents that you use for your cons.”

“Well, yeah,” she said, “just never quite managed to get the hang of Northern or Scottish accents. I can do a pretty decent range of American accents and a French one.”

They came to a stop right before exiting the building and looked at each other, brown eyes meeting blue.

“Remember the plan?” John asked.

“Yeah, you?”

“’Course, impressive, remember?”

“So you keep telling me. Haven’t seen any evidence of that yet,” Rose replied with a wink. She could hardly keep from grinning. John seemed to be in such a better mood than he’d been during the Agency job. She had no idea why but she was hoping he wouldn’t completely clam up on her once they were inside.

“Just you wait, Rose Tyler,” his voice dropped as he caressed the words, delighting in how it caused his partner to shiver. He was going to have to tone it down once they were actually in the bank but this was likely the last night he’d see her and he figured he might as well make the most of it.

“Coms on,” she said, trying to will her voice not to betray the fact that he had practically melted her with that comment.

“Coms on,” John confirmed. “Let’s go.”

He had the door partway open and was about to start the dash to the bank when Rose put a hand on his arm to stop him. John shot her a questioning look but she just rose up on her tiptoes, quick as lightning, and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“For luck,” she explained with a soft smile. “See ya at the bank!” With that, she took off running to the back of the bank where their entrance point was located.

John shook his head, trying to suppress the little smile that had crept onto his face. It was just like her to practically reenact their previous job. Although, running off and around a corner wasn’t quite as dramatic as leaping down a ventilation shaft.

Within a few seconds, John had joined her at the back door and immediately started dismantling the keypad that controlled the lock. The camera back here was broken and there were no CCTV cameras for a block and a half in this alley so they didn’t have to account for that.

John held the last two wires he needed to connect to let them in and looked at his partner. “Fifteen minutes from when I touch these together. In and out and away from here.”

“I know,” the thief replied, taking a deep breath. “Let’s get this started.”

John pressed the wires together and the lock clicked. Rose was inside in a flash, John right behind her.

She made straight for the vault, pulling out the equipment she would need to get inside, a mixture of tools he’d taught her how to use the day before and her normal tools of the trade.

He went for the security room. They kept one secure database on site that held the information about who had which safety deposit box as well as the footage from the security cameras. It was child’s play to get past the minimal security on the terminal that held the info and he had a list printed in less than five minutes and was working on wiping the security cameras for the entire night. It was an inelegant solution but an effective one and time was of the essence if they wanted to get out without alerting anyone.

“Rose, I’ve got the list and took care of the cameras. What’s your status?”

“That was fast. Gonna make me question your stamina again?”

John shook his head, and _there_ was the cheeky thief who’d flirted her way through one of the most challenging jobs in her career. He’d been a little concerned about her lack of chatter.

“Status, Rose.”

“You’re such a bore when you’re working,” she complained. “Just popped the vault open, going in now.”

John set off at a run, reaching the open vault door just in time to see her flipping her way across the room, never putting pressure on the floor for longer than a second. There was a manual cut off switch for the pressure sensitive floor on the other side of the vault in case of emergencies. The bank had a remote that turned it on and off that John could have duped if he’d had more time but they had to get the USB before Jack left the country.

Rose landed on her feet, hit the switch, and turned to smile at him. “I was on the gymnastics team when I was little. I got the bronze.” She waited a beat before continuing, “And in case you were wondering, I’m still _very_ flexible.”

“We have work to do,” he reminded her, hoping she didn’t notice that the tips of his ears were flushing. “Just under ten minutes until the temporary hold on the door security gives out.”

Rose started loading both of their bags with the cash stored in one of the rooms of the vault. “Have you looked at the list and figured out with boxes we should hit?”

John scanned the names, noting quite a few among London’s criminal elite. Apparently, they figured if the Agency was using this vault, it must be safe.

_There_.

“Got it,” John called out. “Someone at the Agency used an alias I recognize and it would figure that he’s behind all of this. His fingerprints were all over the increased online security.”

Rose appeared behind him and peered over her shoulder at the name his finger had stopped on. Didn’t ring any bells for her but John seemed confident so she dropped her bag of cash and pulled her set of lock picks out. John had his in hand as well and they immediately set to work on the safety deposit box that was registered to one Harold Saxon.

They had it open in under a minute and were rewarded with a USB drive.

“You sure this is the right one, yeah?” Rose asked.

“98% sure. I recognize some of these other names but they aren’t affiliated with the Agency and I don’t think they or the Agency would risk using a name that could cause trouble.”

Rose looked at him warily. “You said this whole thing could be a trap. Wouldn’t they use a name you would recognize like this Saxon bloke if it were a trap?”

“They wouldn’t know that I’m aware of that particular alias. It’s one of his few completely clean ones and he’s very protective of it, doesn’t know I know it exists. This is the first time I’ve heard of him using it on something that could be traced. Can we get out of here now?”

Rose’s mind was whirling with questions about how he knew so much about the Agency. Every time he divulged a piece of information, ten more questions came up. But now wasn’t the time to ask them. She knew he was desperate to change the subject away from the Agency and so she let him. Rose had something she wanted to show him anyways.

“Not quite,” she said, dipping down to snag something out of the pocket on the outside of her bag. “Thought we could throw the Agency off our trail a bit by signing our work.”

She held out a business card to him.

On one side there was a police box like the one they’d met at after the Agency job, underneath that were the words “Team TARDIS.” John flipped the card over and saw the back had “The Doctor” and “Bad Wolf,” flowed across the paper in stark black ink.

“TARDIS?” John questioned.

Rose gave him one of her tongue-in-teeth smiles. “’There Are Reasons Dishonesty Is Stupid.’ You told me I should put it on a card, so I did.”

“Cheeky. What about the names? Where did you get ‘Bad Wolf’ from?”

“You told me I looked like a wolf about to rip your throat out yesterday. I don’t think I’d make a very good wolf.” The feral gleam in her eyes and a ruthless, lupine smile belied her words.

John couldn’t help it; he chuckled as he turned the card over again.

“Don’t like the idea?” Rose guessed.

“I think it’s brilliant. The coppers will be scratching their heads trying to figure it out for weeks and so will the Agency. Fantastic distraction technique.”

Knowing they were running out of time, Rose and John quickly vacated the vault, closing it and taping the card to the outside of the vault door. That done, they slipped out the back with thirty seconds to spare.

John and Rose locked eyes, both humming with adrenaline at another successful job. He slipped his hand in hers.

“Run,” he whispered, lips brushing against her ear.

Together they took off through the back alleys of London, distancing themselves from the scene of the crime.

A few blocks away they skidded to a stop, breathing hard and grinning for all they were worth. Rose leaned back against the brick wall, tugging him closer with their still entwined hands.

John could feel the blood pumping through his veins, could feel the heady rush of adrenaline and success going to his head as he looked down at his partner. And oh, he could also feel the gravity that was pulling him towards the blonde thief, the pull that had been there since the night they’d met and just kept getting stronger.

Rose was smiling up at him, eyes dark, challenge inherent in the tilt of her chin.

He was never one to turn down a challenge.

John took a step forward, leaned down and captured her lips. Rose was ready for him, responding immediately. She opened her mouth, swiping her tongue across his bottom lip. He growled in response, and chased her tongue back into her mouth. Her hands clutched at his shoulders, feeling the hard muscles concealed by his jumper. He had one hand tangled in her hair after he rid her of her hat, and the other grasping her hip.

Rose was glad she had the wall at her back holding her up as John seemed to do his best to steal the air from her lungs. It was like the kiss from the Agency job, all heat and teeth and tongues, but better. From the way he was finding every spot, every technique that made her melt, it seemed like John had spent that year between jobs dreaming about doing this again as well.

Rose was by no means a passive participant. She maneuvered until their tongues were back in his mouth and she could do some exploring of her own. When she fluttered her tongue against the roof of his mouth he groaned, pressing his hips into hers. Rose slid her hands down his back until she was cupping his arse. She pulled him closer and then rubbed her body against his.

John pulled back from the kiss with a gasp, breathing hard. Rose was doing the same, looking about as shell-shocked as he felt. He debated with himself for half a second before diving back down to meet her lips once more. The hand he’d had on her hip insinuated itself between their bodies to palm one of her breasts.

When Rose broke away to catch her breath, John moved his mouth to her neck, sucking and nipping a line from her ear to her collarbone, where he set about making a mark. By the time he released her with a pop, Rose was panting.

John couldn’t suppress a smirk as he looked down at the woman in his arms. She looked well-kissed and disheveled and all he wanted to do was snog the breath out of her again.

Rose seemed to be off the same mind. “You better not be planning on leaving me like this again,” she warned.

He chuckled darkly. “Not a chance. But we are supposed to meet Jack in twenty minutes.”

“There’s a lot we could do in twenty minutes,” Rose countered, slipping her hand between them to cup him through his trousers.

He hissed, bucking his hips forward into her hand. Rose thought she had won but John shook his head.

“No, I’m going to take my time with you, Rose Tyler.” He leaned closer, lips brushing her ear as he spoke. “I have plans for us tonight and they include a bed, not some dirty alley.”

Rose shivered and stepped away from him. She needed some distance if he expected her not to jump him right here. “Well then, let’s go drop off the USB with Jack and then get to puttin’ those plans into effect. I’m still waiting for you to prove how impressive you are.” She flicked her eyes down to linger on the bulge in his trousers where he was still obviously hard.

John cleared his throat and picked up the bag he’d dropped to the ground earlier. As Rose did the same, his mind was racing forward to how the night was going to continue when they made it back to his flat. Flashes of the dreams and fantasies he’d had over the past year flickered though his brain, ramping up the anticipation to an almost unbearable level.

Hopefully Jack would be at the rendez-vous early.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John and Rose make it to the rendez-vous and then head back to John's flat. Basically...you know all that sexual tension that's been building? Yeah, it's no longer unresolved. Note the rating change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm SO SORRY for my long absence. But i return with a 5.4k chapter that's mostly smut so that kind of makes up for me not updating for four months, right? It's kind of like showing up fifteen minutes late with starbucks for everyone, yeah?
> 
> And if smut’s not your thing, you can skip from when they get back to John’s flat all the way down to the last couple paragraphs. You won’t miss anything important to the plot.
> 
> Also a shout out to chocolatequeen and fardareismai for being super encouraging while I worked on this chapter!

The walk to the rendez-vous took John and Rose fifteen minutes. They were mostly silent as they slipped through the shadows of London with their bags of stolen cash, both still wound tight after their encounter in the alley. Every unintentional brush of their hands or shoulders was charged with anticipation.

Five minutes from their destination Rose decided to break the silence. “So what are we gonna do with all of this?” She swung her bag forward to indicate she was talking about the money.

“Figured we’d split it fifty-fifty and go our separate ways,” John answered.

“Planning on donating some of your cut again?”

“Probably,” he said with a shrug. Rose had been right about him having the leather jacket in the bottom of his bag. He’d dug it out and put it on before they left the alleyway earlier while she’d been undoing her braid and attempting to make her hair look somewhat presentable.

“Me too. I’ve got my eye on a couple new tools that I’m going to buy with what’s leftover. Some of the stuff you lent me for this would be useful to have. Then I think I’m going to buy a plane ticket and get out of here for a while.”

“You like to travel?” John asked before he could stop himself. Apparently his impulse control was lacking in all areas tonight, he thought, since he usually avoided any conversation that even bordered on personal. Hopefully he could keep her talking about herself instead of turning the conversation to him.

“Love the idea of it, haven’t gone much of anywhere though,” Rose said wistfully. “Used to be because I didn’t have enough money, now it’s usually a combination of not having enough money and not enough time to just drop everything and leave for a week or two.”

“How are you a thief, a good thief, without enough money to travel?”

“Well, I don’t know how well hacking pays but considering you own a freaking building, I’m going to guess it’s a whole lot more than what you get from being a freelance thief.” Rose teased, not even trying to suppress the smile that spread across her face at John’s offhand compliment. “I get enough to pay the bills and live a pretty nice life and buy most of the toys I want but there’s usually not enough left over to just go travelling. Half the time my cons have a bigger payout than my other jobs since I had to keep the thefts on a small scale to avoid paying any dues to the Agency or drawing their attention.”

“And they don’t keep an eye on cons and demand a cut of those?” John questioned. This was a whole different sector of the criminal world that he knew next to nothing about.

Rose laughed. “Not even the Agency can keep track of all the cons and corruption going on in London.”

John chuckled as they slowed to a stop at the corner where they were supposed to meet Jack. “That’s true, they’d be tryin’ to get all the politicians to pay them and you know how they hate paying for anything that doesn’t directly benefit them.”

Rose’s smile shifted into a smug, enigmatic smirk as she looked up at him. “Ran a con on the government once.”

“The whole government?” John asked skeptically.

“Well, key members of the cabinet were involved and so was the Prime Minister, so yeah, I count it as running game on the whole government.”

John crossed his arms and leaned back against the nearby building. “How did you do it?”

Rose sidestepped the bag of cash at his feet and inched closer to him. “If you’re very, very good,” she purred, walking her fingers up his chest, “I _might_ tell you.” She ended with a poke to his sternum, smirking up at him still.

John couldn’t resist the setup, couldn’t’ve done even if his impulse control wasn’t in tatters. “What if I’m very, very bad?” he rumbled, voice low. His hands went to Rose’s hips, pulling her closer so that she was flush against him.

“Well, I could be convinced,” Rose whispered, breath ghosting over his lips.

She’d barely finished voicing the last word when John’s mouth covered her own. Just like in the alley there was no buildup. The kiss was immediately deep and wet, tongues and teeth in play as much as lips. Adrenaline and lust was still pumping through their veins and they didn’t care that they were in plain view or even consider that Jack could show up any minute. Every ounce of their focus was on the play of tongues and the way their bodies fit together, on imagining all the different ways their bodies could fit together if they ever managed to make it to a bed.

“Well, I do seem to be making a habit of walking in on the two of you in compromising positions,” Jack drawled, grin stretching across his face as he watched his two friends reluctantly draw away from each other. “Since you knew I’d be showing up soon both times, it almost feels like an invitation.”

“ _Not_ an invitation,” John said emphatically.

“Definitely not sharing,” Rose added on. The smile she aimed at Jack was reminiscent of the cat who got the canary.

“You two are killing me, you know that right?”

John answered him by pulling the USB out of his pocket and holding it out to Jack. He took it with a laugh.

“I get it, I get it. I’ll leave the two of you to it in just a minute. Any problems getting this?”

“Nope. Everythin’ went down according to plan. Shouldn’t be any trace of us except what we left on purpose.” Rose said, relishing Jack’s confused look. “I’m sure you’ll hear about it tomorrow.”

“Oh-kaaay,” Jack replied. Rose was extremely enigmatic when she wanted to be and he knew she wouldn’t explain any further even if he asked. “With that cryptic comment I will be on my way, leave you kids to continue what I interrupted. I’ll drop in to say goodbye before I leave for the States.”

He snapped off a quick salute at the two bank robbers. John returned it lazily and Jack was grinning as he turned and walked away from his friends. They didn’t know it yet but he intended to gloat as much as he could get away with for being the one to bring them together.

John and Rose watched until Jack disappeared around a corner.

“So, back to your place?” Rose asked.

“Definitely.”

They picked up their bags and set off down the street in silence once more. Again it was Rose who broke the conversational lull.

“Got distracted and forgot to ask earlier, do you like to travel?”

“Yes,” he said tightly.

“Been a lot of places?” Rose pushed. She was still high on kisses and anticipation and adrenaline and willing to try her luck with her partner’s hatred of sharing anything personal.

“A fair number.” He’d travelled the world but it was back in the days he didn’t like to remember, the days he had erased from his history and didn’t talk about. Nowadays his feet itched and he wanted to run, wanted to throw himself into a new culture and eat the wrong foods and use the wrong verbs and get charged too much since he was obviously not a native. He wanted to see it all again on his own terms but he stayed still, tried to put down roots here in London because running away felt like handing over a victory to the people he hated and he wasn’t going to allow that.

Rose looked up and saw the darkness brewing in his eyes, saw his clenched jaw and the way his mouth had thinned to a hard line. She had to hold back a sigh. Even the most innocuous topics seemed to set him off and navigating the minefield that was a semi-personal conversation with him was exhausting.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to pry,” she muttered after looking away, adjusting her grip on her bag.

John was at a loss. He really didn’t want to talk about himself but he also didn’t want Rose upset with him. (And oh that was a revelation. He normally didn’t give a damn about who he upset.) He opened his mouth to say something, anything, maybe try to explain again that he didn’t like talking about himself but Rose cut him off.

“How much farther to your building?” She wanted to argue with him about all his issues but this wasn’t the time. She wanted to get back to his flat and peel his jacket and jeans off and _not_ talk because their mouths would be otherwise occupied.

“Still hung up on the fact that I own the building?” John teased, glad for the subject change.

“Who the hell owns a _building_? In _London_? No one. That’s not…that’s not a thing that a normal person just buys!”

“Never claimed to be normal.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Rose shot back, bumping his shoulder with hers. “Now answer the question, I’m not over in this part of town very often.”

“’Bout five minutes.”

“Good.”

“Impatient, are we?” he asked, grinning down at her.

She looked up with a wicked smile on her face. “Very.”

John swallowed hard and picked up the pace, reveling in Rose’s giggle. He was impatient too and he hadn’t been joking when he told Rose he had plans for the two of them tonight. The sooner they got to his flat, the sooner he could put them into action.

They were quiet for the rest of the walk to John’s flat. It was almost exactly five minutes later when John swiped them into the building.

He was in the process of trying to fit his key in the lock when Rose pressed against him from behind, molding her body against his and snaking her free hand around him to toy with the top of his waistband. He almost dropped the key.

“C’mon, John,” Rose urged. She’d been fixating on their kisses for the last five minutes, remembering the way his lips felt on hers and how he seemed intent on devouring her, imagining him devoting the same attention to other places. Heat flashed through her and she pressed closer to John, letting her fingertips venture just below the waistband of his trousers. She wanted inside, wanted to start devouring him like the wolf she’d named herself.

She’d been dreaming about this for a year and her patience was gone.

John was of the same mind. Finally the key went in and he turned the lock, letting them into his flat.

The door had barely closed behind them when John had Rose pressed against the wall next to the door and his mouth was on hers. Their tongues clashed, picking up where they’d left off at the rendez-vous, and the alley, and the police box.

John had one hand on the wall next to Rose’s head and one firmly planted on her arse. She was hanging onto him for dear life, hands on his shoulders trying to find purchase on the leather.

Rose spared a thought that devour had been the right word to use earlier. As far as she could tell, John was trying to steal her breath, trying to get the upper hand and maintain it. She couldn’t have that.

She started pushing at his jacket without breaking the kiss. With a parting squeeze to her bum he moved his arms to assist and the leather hit the floor with a thud. Rose pulled back at the sound, looking up at him with dark eyes.

“Been dreamin’ about that sound,” she admitted breathlessly.

John smirked, that same fuck-me smirk that had been driving her crazy from the get go. “Guess my moves were a bit more than ‘adequate’ after all.”

“Git,” Rose said, lightly slapping his shoulder.

He took a tiny step forward, eliminating the space between them and leaning down so that his lips were just barely not touching hers. “I think you’ll find by the end of tonight that my moves,” he paused and placed a teasing kiss on the corner of her mouth, “are very impressive.”

“You keep sayin’ that,” Rose retorted breathlessly, trying to keep her voice even as he brushed little butterfly kisses along her jaw. “Think you need to prove it.”

He nipped at her earlobe before pulling back, eyes dark and smirk in place again. “Your wish is my command.”

With that, his mouth slanted against hers once more. Rose moaned into the kiss when one of his hands slipped up the front of her shirt and palmed her breast.

John was completely overwhelmed by the multitude of sensations, by Rose’s taste and the feeling of her pebbled nipple pushing into his palm through her sports bra. He groaned and ground his hips against her, needing friction. Rose’s hands were roaming restlessly up and down his back, unable to stay still. He moved his hand from her breast to her back, spreading his fingers wide and pulling her infinitesimally closer to him.

Rose pulled back to gasp in a breath and John moved his mouth to her neck, nibbling and kissing his way down the column of her throat. One of her hands flew to the back of his head, tangling in the short strands when he licked at the mark he’d sucked into the skin over her collarbone back in the alleyway. He smirked against her skin and then gently nipped the discolored skin causing Rose to gasp and dig her fingernails into his scalp.

She grasped his ears and guided him back up to her mouth when it seemed like he wasn’t going to move on his own.

“My turn,” she whispered against his mouth.

Before he could try to puzzle out what she meant, Rose abruptly spun them so that John had his back to the wall instead of her. She used the hand she had on the back of his head to pull him down to her and proceeded to take control of the kiss, tongue invading his mouth, intent on mapping its contours and discovering all its secrets.

Remembering his reaction earlier, Rose fluttered her tongue against the roof of his mouth and was rewarded with a low sound of appreciation. John’s hands moved down to her arse once more, squeezing before hauling her against him, reluctant to all there to be any space between them. He insinuated one of his thighs between hers, bringing her even closer and giving them both much needed friction.

Rose retaliated by pulling back slightly to capture his bottom lip between her teeth. Her fingers were playing with the short hairs on the back of his neck while her other hand was dipping beneath the back waistband of his trousers to trace the edge of his pants. She released his lip so she could drag her mouth along his jaw line. He leaned his head back against the wall, giving her more access, giving her an invitation to have a go at his throat.

She paused when she made it to his pulse point, spending a brief moment sucking a light pink mark over it that would be gone in a few minutes. Rose pulled her mouth away and placed a gentle kiss on the temporary mark, waited a beat so John would think she was moving on and then bit down on the spot. John’s hips jerked forward and he let out a low groan, hands tightening on her hips. She released him and licked at the new mark to soothe it, feeling his heartbeat hammering double time underneath her tongue.

Rose continued to move her mouth upwards, scraping her teeth against a spot behind his ear that seemed especially sensitive and she planned on revisiting later before sucking his earlobe into her mouth and toying with it with her tongue.

After a few moments she popped it back out of her mouth and moved back to his lips, reclaiming him in a kiss. John maneuvered so that their tongues were back in her mouth but quickly realized that she was just allowing him to have the illusion of control while she actually pulled the strings.

They battled for control for a few more moments before their mouths separated as they both gasped for breath.

“Bedroom,” Rose panted after a brief second. “You said you had plans for a bedroom and if we don’t go right now I’m gonna have you right here against this wall.”

John felt his cock twitch against the zipper of his trousers at the thought of just having Rose right here where they’d landed after entering the flat. But he wanted to see her sprawled on his bed more than he wanted to press her against the wall.

“Bedroom,” he agreed, voice low and rough. Rose shivered at the sound.

She took a step back, running her eyes over the lean length of her partner as he lounged against the wall. “Need a minute?” she asked, innocent tone at odds with the look in her eyes.

John pushed off the wall with dangerous grace, crowding Rose until she took another step back. “Bedroom,” he repeated, pinning the thief in place with eyes that only had a hint of the blue she was accustomed to visible.

She shivered again. He smirked.

He grabbed her hand as he moved past her, lacing their fingers and pulling her towards the hallway and their goal of a bedroom.

As soon as the door closed behind them Rose crossed her arms in front of her, grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head, depositing it on the floor. She smiled at John who was frozen by the doorway, watching her. She toed out of her trainers as she walked towards the bed, swaying her hips more than normal.

When she sat down on the foot of the bed, she looked up at John. “Coming?”

He bit back the obvious response and let out a low growl instead, crossing the room in a few long strides to join Rose on the bed. He sealed his mouth against hers again as they maneuvered so that she was laying on her back, head propped up on the pillows and John looming over her propped up on an elbow with a knee between her thighs.

He moved one of his hands to cup her breast through the black sports bra she had on. “Take it off,” he said against her mouth as he squeezed.

Rose held back a whimper. “As long as you take off that jumper,” she countered.

John pushed back onto his knees and pulled his jumper off in a smooth movement, revealing a toned chest with just a smattering of dark hair. Rose was about to reach out to touch, unable to control the impulse when he grinned down at her. “Your turn.”

Quickly she pulled the bra over her head, mussing her hair even further, and threw it off the bed. John stared down at her for a moment. This is what he’d wanted, Rose laid out on his bed, blonde hair spread across his pillows while she looked up at him with those whiskey eyes full of lust and challenge. He wasn’t going to waste a second of this opportunity since it was likely a once in a lifetime one. After all, this was a walk-away and he’d never see her again after tonight.

Ignoring the little pang in his heart at that thought, he reached out and filled his hand with one of her newly exposed breasts, thumb stroking over velvety skin and peaked nipple. Rose made a small noise in the back of her throat and he leaned down, trapping his hand against her as their mouths met once more.

Rose arched up at the feel of skin on skin, putting a hand on the back of his head to keep him in place as his tongue plundered her mouth, thrusting in and out and teasing her with a lazy imitation of what was to come. She groaned when he moved his hand to tweak her nipple and then pulled away from the kiss, panting next to his ear as he brushed kisses along the join between her neck and shoulder.

He moved down, leaving a wet trail down her chest as his mouth began lavishing attention on her other breast. His tongue flicked against her nipple, bringing it to full attention as he rolled the other one between his fingers. Without warning he sucked the tip of her breast into his mouth creating suction as he continued to work with his tongue.

“Oh god,” Rose managed to get out, “knew you’d be good with your mouth.”

John released her with a wet pop and gave her a wicked smile. “Been thinkin’ about that have ya?”

“Maybe a bit,” she admitted. She reached out and pulled him back up so she could kiss him. While he was distracted, she rolled them so she was on top.

She pulled back and grinned down at him as she rearranged their positions, moving so that her knees bracketed his hips. Rose was hovering over him barely touching, teasing him with what was to come.

John was impatient. He moved his hands to her hips and pulled her down causing both of them to groan as her center came into contact with his caged erection. There were still four layers of fabric between them but when Rose moved her hips in a tight circle, grinding down on him, John’s eyes rolled back in pleasure and he let out a long moan. Rose ran her hands over his chest, flicking at his nipples and mapping the slight definition of his abs while continuing to move against him.

“Rose,” he groaned.

“Yes, John?” she asked, sounding far too much in control for John’s liking.

“We’re wearing too much clothing,” he ground out.

“Take it your plans don’t include any?” she teased.

He shook his head, momentarily distracted by the way her breasts were swinging in front of him.

Rose giggled and then started scooting down his thighs. He was about to protest her moving away when her hands moved to the button of his trousers and quickly popped them open. His eyes slammed shut when she slipped a hand inside to help ease his zipper down.

Then she was moving again. She hooked her fingers underneath the waistband of pants and trousers and began sliding them down his hips, carefully freeing his erection. He heaved a sigh of relief and opened his eyes, wanting to see Rose’s reaction. She was eyeing him like a favorite candy as she continued to slide his trousers down his legs taking his pants with them.

She raised an eyebrow at him when she got to his feet and realized he hadn’t ever taken his boots off but didn’t say a word as she untied them as fast as possible. Finally there was a pile of boots, socks, trousers, and pants on the floor and John was completely naked.

Rose wasted no time. She crawled back up his body and wrapped her hand around his cock, stroking slowly. She wasn’t going to tell him but so far everything pointed towards him being as impressive as he claimed. She lowered her head and latched onto a patch of skin right over his hipbone, intent on making a mark that would last. Rose knew he was still planning on walking away after tonight and if he did, she was damn well going to make sure that he wasn’t leaving without a reminder of her.

John watched as Rose made her mark trying to keep from bucking his hips. There was a familiar feral look in her eyes as they locked with his and as she nipped at the new mark and he had a brief thought that her moniker of Bad Wolf was particularly apt.

As soon as she released him with a final kiss to the darkening skin he pulled her back up his body and covered her mouth with his, hands tangling in her hair. Their teeth clashed and noses bumped as they tried to devour each other, both quickly losing finesse as lust and leftover adrenaline coursed through their veins.

John wrenched his mouth away. “You’re still wearing clothes.”

“Fix it, _Doctor_ ,” she shot back, panting.

He grinned and rolled them over. “Budge up.”

She moved further up the bed until her shoulders were resting on the pillows. John rose up so that he was kneeling nest to her and hooked his fingers in the waistband of her trousers, thanking any deity that was listening that they were made of some sort of stretchy fabric and didn’t seem to have any fasteners he had to fumble with. He pulled on them, keeping eye contact with Rose as he took trousers, pants, and socks in one go, dumping them all on the floor with his.

He sucked in a breath when he looked her over, finally naked and in his bed like he’d been dreaming of for a year. The reality was so much better.

John moved to kneel between her legs, filling his hands with her breasts again. Rose was breathing hard, watching his every move for a hint at what he was going to do next. He knew she was also looking for a way to get the upper hand again but he wasn’t going to let her have it.

He lowered his head and took one of her nipples into his mouth again, reveling in the feel of her nails digging into his scalp as she tried to keep him in place. He grinned against her skin when he released her and began to move down.

Rose’s breath caught when he settled his wide shoulders between her knees, rested his hands on her upper thighs and smirked up at her. “I think you said something about me bein’ good with me mouth,” he said.

That was all the warning he gave before lowering his head and licked from the bottom of her slit up to her clit, causing Rose to shout. He flicked his tongue against it once and pulled back.

“You’re incredibly wet, Rose,” he commented, voice sounding both awed and smug.

Rose didn’t care, she just wanted him to go back to what he was doing. “God, been this way since-“ she broke off with a whimper when he closed his lips around her sensitive nub again. “Been this way since the alley,” she finished when he let up for a moment.

It was indeed only a momentary reprieve. John set to his chosen task with enthusiasm, tongue thrusting into her as deep as he could manage, reenacting their kisses and establishing the same rhythm, before pulling back to tease her clit. He slid his arms underneath her thighs and wrapped them around to use his hands to keep her hips still.

Rose could feel her orgasm building, could feel the coil tightening as John continued to put his very talented mouth to use. Her fists were clenched in the duvet as she held on for dear life. She looked down her body at John and jolted when she realized he was watching her.

He lifted his head enough to give her a wicked smile, lips and chin glistening with her arousal and blue eyes dark with desire. Then he bent down and sucked her clit into his mouth, flicking rapidly with his tongue.

Rose came with a shout, walls tightening around nothing. He continued his ministrations, gently licking until she came down from her orgasm. With a farewell nip to her inner thigh he pulled back and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand before crawling back up her body.

Rose pulled his head down and kissed him languidly, seeking out her taste in his mouth. It was only a few seconds before the kiss turned urgent once more, John taking control as he ground his neglected erection against her hip.

“Condom?” She questioned when he pulled back and started making another mark on the other side of her neck.

“Nightstand,” he answered, voice muffled by her skin.

Quickly, Rose rolled them over again, straddling John as she reached over to open the drawer of the nightstand. She’d just grabbed a condom when John grabbed her hips to pull her back down on top of him.

Rose threw her head back as she came into contact with his cock, this time with no layers between them. She rubbed herself against his cock, enjoying the feel of his big hands grasping hard at her thighs and the way the head of his cock hit against her clit, reigniting her arousal.

She pulled back, scooting down his thighs and taking him in hand. Rose gave him a couple of firm strokes before ripping open the condom and rolling it onto him. Once it was on, she returned to her former position, rubbing against him and driving herself closer to a second orgasm.

John moved his hands up to her hips, guiding her motions for a moment before gripping tighter and rolling them over once more.

“Control freak,” Rose teased when she found herself on bottom again.

“You’re one to talk,” he shot back. They’d been battling for control since the moment they met and it was no surprise that they were doing the same now that they’d finally made it to this point.

John bent down and set to darkening the second mark he’d made as one of his hands moved down her body. Rose jolted when he slipped a finger inside of her and moaned when a second finger was added as he nipped at her neck. He thrust his fingers in and out a few time, circling her clit with his thumb.

“I’m ready, John. Need you inside me. Now.” Rose panted out. She could feel herself climbing again and wanted him buried within her when she came.

John didn’t argue. He took himself in hand and guided the tip of his cock to her entrance. He leaned down and captured her lips in a kiss as he slid home.

His jaw slackened and his mouth stopped moving against hers as he tried to hold onto his last shred of control. She was so hot and tight and it felt so _right_. Rose whispered his name against his lips and finally, _finally_ , he began moving. The rhythm he’d set with his tongue earlier translated to the movement of his hips.

John knew he wasn’t going to last long, not after all the buildup. He reached down and started rubbing at Rose’s clit, determined that she was going to come with him.

It was fast after that, both of them unable to control the noises that escaped them. Rose squeezed him with her inner walls when he inadvertently pressed harder on her clit. That shattered the last bit of control causing him to start thrusting faster and harder, rhythm being abandoned as he chased release.

Rose’s nails bit into his back and she leaned up and sunk her teeth into his shoulder. John broke, freezing as his orgasm took him over. His fingers kept moving though and within a few seconds Rose fell over the edge again, his name falling from her lips as her walls tightened spasmodically around him.

John collapsed, rolling off of her so he wouldn’t crush her. They both lay there for a second, breathing hard. After a moment, John carefully got out of bed and padded to the loo to take care of the condom. He came back with a wet flannel and wordlessly offered it to Rose.

They didn’t speak a word as they cleaned up but when John lay back on the bed after stripping off the duvet and folded the blanket back to invite Rose to lay down with him she grinned at him and figured no words were really necessary.

She climbed back into the bed and cuddled up next to him, laying her head on his shoulder and throwing an arm across his waist. He brushed a barely-there kiss to the top of her head and trailed his fingers up and down her back.

Rose smiled into his chest and finally broke the silence. “You were right by the way,” she said through a yawn. “Your moves are impressive.”

He chuckled, chest vibrating under Rose’s cheek. “Told you. Now go to sleep, Rose.”

They both let the exhaustion take over and succumbed to sleep, neither aware that the other was wondering how they were going to walk away in the morning, how one night could possibly be enough.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after doesn't go very well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why yes, I am updating in a timely manner! But unlike last chapter which was like showing up fifteen minutes late with Starbucks for everyone, this one is more like showing up a few minutes early and handing out cups full of bees without warning anyone.
> 
> ....That will _probably_ make sense once you've read the chapter.

Rose snuggled into John’s side after she rolled off of him. They were both sweaty and breathing hard and she was delightfully sore. Waking him up with a kiss had been a wonderful idea and she smiled into his skin as she thought back on the previous night and this morning. Her fantasies hadn’t done him justice in the slightest.

Her smile widened as she thought back on their successful heist. They had worked together seamlessly when it came down to the critical moments, even if they’d had their difficulties in the days leading up to the job. Basking in the afterglow of amazing sex and the memory of the near-perfect robbery, Rose wasn’t sure she wanted to go back to working alone.

She propped herself up so she could look down at her lover. “You know, we’re rather good at this.”

John expression went from sleepily content to insufferably smug in a fraction of a second as he lazily flicked his gaze down to eye where her breasts were pressing against his chest. “I’d say we’re fantastic at this,” he drawled, slipping the hand he had on her back down to rest just above the curve of her bum.

Rose rolled her eyes. “Wasn’t talking about the sex, you git. Already knew we’d be fantastic at that.”

“Did you now?”

“Would’ve found out for sure a lot earlier if you hadn’t been such a bastard a year ago,” she pointed out.

“Just built the tension,” he protested.

“Riiight,” Rose answered, sarcasm dripping from the single word. “But I was talkin’ about us working together to take on the bank. We’re really good at this bank robbing lark.”

“Hardly counts as a lark when we were only doing it to help Jack,” John said, trying to keep her away from the suggestion he had a feeling she was about to make.

“Semantics,” she replied, biting back a smile. “But maybe we should work together on something like this again sometime.”

She felt John stiffen and saw all emotion disappear from his face. It was an instantaneous transformation from the lover she’d spent the night with to the prickly hacker she fought with. Rose sighed when a beat passed and he didn’t appear to be making any move to answer her. She pushed herself away from him and rolled out of the bed and started moving about the room, collecting her clothes from where they’d been thrown last night. She wasn’t up to dealing with his hangups yet, not when she was still sweaty and smelling like sex and John.

“I’m gonna get a shower while you think about it,” she said finally as she walked out of the room, feeling his eyes on her even though he didn’t say a word.

John watched her leave and then drew a hand down his face. He’d known she was going to suggest continuing their partnership and there was no good way to turn her down. The fact of the matter remained that he worked alone and this was a walkaway, had always been a walkaway. He’d been entertaining the hope that they could have a few more days before she brought it up because he was long past denying that he wanted her in his bed.

(He was still trying to deal with the fact that he might want her in his life.)

There was no chance she would ever come back if she walked out when he told her that working with her hadn’t changed his policy about working alone. She was the closest he’d come to being tempted to work with someone else in a long, long time but there was no obligation to Jack keeping them together anymore and that meant he was free to cut ties. There was a small part of him that suggested he could try working with her, that maybe she was worth it, that maybe whatever they were together was worth it but John squashed that voice ruthlessly. He wasn’t changing his ways just because Rose asked.

Groaning, he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He might as well go start the coffee. He had a feeling he was going to need the caffeine for the upcoming conversation. He pulled on a pair of jeans and a jumper, putting on his armor instead of the t-shirt and pajama pants he normally wore on lazy mornings.

As he stared at the coffee pot he wondered if he might also need a splash of whiskey in his coffee to deal with the storm that he could feel brewing.

He was halfway through his cup of whiskey-free coffee when Rose walked into the kitchen fully dressed.

She ignored him in favor of pouring herself a cup.

John watched as she poured in milk and stirred in sugar, moving around his kitchen without ever looking at him. Apparently she’d used her time in the shower to think as well and whatever she had come up with didn’t appear to be in his favor.

Finally she leaned against the counter opposite of him and made eye contact as she took her first sip.

Rose lowered her mug, cradling it in her hands to enjoy the warmth emanating from it. “So, did you think about what I said?”

Her voice was devoid of any emotion and John almost winced. That didn’t bode well at all.

“This is a walkaway, Rose. I work best alone and that hasn’t changed.”

Rose didn’t flinch or break eye contact as she took another sip of coffee. “I thought that would be your answer but I hoped you might surprise me so I had to ask.”

She paused long enough for John to hope that maybe that was the end of it and they could part on semi-amicable terms. Rose didn’t let that illusion live for very long. “So do I get to know why you’re ending this partnership before it can get off the ground or is that too _personal_?” She sneered as she spat the last word at him, the expression contorting her face.

“Already told you. I work alone. I made an exception to help Jack but that’s it,” John replied, bristling.

“That’s an excuse, not a reason,” Rose shot back. “But you don’t see that, do you? You’ve been using it as a shield for so long, trying to keep people away that you don’t even know why you do it anymore.”

“Just because you don’t know something doesn’t mean I don’t. Just means I’m not sharing.”

“Yeah, got that. You do that a lot, the whole not sharing bit.”

John’s eyes dropped down to the marks on her neck that he’d put there the night before, mind briefly going off on a tangent about how he _really_ didn’t like to share. He returned his gaze to her unwavering one. “I’ve got my reasons.”

Rose set her mug down with a violent thump before crossing her arms over her chest. “You keep sayin’ that but I haven’t heard them yet.”

“That’s because I’m not required to share them with you no matter what you seem to think.” John could feel his temper rising and tried to tamp it down.

“Oh right, because you don’t trust me. Have you noticed that your ‘reasons’ are all just circular logic? Can never get a straight answer out of you.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t ask so many questions. You knew from the beginning that this was never anything more than one job, one night.” John lashed out, losing the battle against his temper. “Why are you so intent on making it more than it is?”

Rose looked like she’d been slapped. Her mouth stayed open for a moment before she clenched her jaw and narrowed her eyes at him, taking a step forward. “You know what, I don’t even know why I thought working with you would be a good idea. You’re an arrogant arse who can’t ever be bothered to even think of compromising.” Her voice was getting louder as she continued. “I bet it didn’t even occur to you that I always work alone too, did it? You know why? Because I was willing to do whatever it took to help a friend and not complain about the _inconvenience_ of having a partner.”

Rose paused to take a breath and John cut in. “Inconvenience isn’t quite the word I would use,” he quipped. “Obviously I was willing to do whatever it took as well since I agreed to work with _you_.” The condescension was thick and he saw the hurt flash through Rose’s eyes as she took a step back and he felt guilty for a moment before the hurt was replaced by anger once more.

“Right, because you’re some high and mighty doctor who has all sorts of high tech toys and obviously that somehow makes you better than me with my pretty face and lack of A-levels. Well you can stop thinkin’ that right now because there’s no way you would have been able to pull off either the Agency job or the bank robbery without me. And you seemed more than okay with my skills as a thief yesterday so don’t even try to act like I’m beneath you because I’m not.”

Rose heaved in a breath and glared at him, fire in her eyes. “You told me the other day that the world didn’t revolve around me but I think it’s you that needs to hear that. The world doesn’t revolve around you, John. It’s not gonna explode if you occasionally answer a question about if you like to travel or remember to eat while working.”

“I don’t like talking about my past and I don’t like talking about myself, is that a problem?”

“It is when you make it such a big fucking deal! Tryin’ to have a conversation with you is bloody exhausting because I never know when you’re going to shut me out for asking a simple question. You could just brush it off but, no, you make it seem like my fault for daring to ask a question and that’s not fair.” Rose paused, meeting the storm in his eyes with her own fury. “For all I care you could just lie and I’d probably never know. Would be better than just shutting down.”

“I don’t lie,” John gritted out. He set his coffee cup down in the sink and stalked towards the sitting room, figuring Rose would follow if she was intent on continuing this.

“No, you just withhold information,” Rose answered as she reduced the distance he’d put between them. “We already went over that, though. We’re talking about your inability to have anythin’ resembling a normal conversation and you’re just proving my point.”

“This,” he gestured between the two of them, “is not a conversation.”

 “Which was my point,” Rose said caustically. “You refuse to talk about anything so it all gets bottled up until you drive people away or end up yelling at them!”

“You’re the one who started yelling!”

“That’s because you were being unreasonable! I tried to start a conversation, you weren’t interested.”

“Still not interested, in case you were wondering,” he snarked.

“God, you’re so frustrating!”

“Well if I’m annoying you so much, you can leave. Nothing’s stopping you,” John wanted to stop the words coming out of his mouth but he’d already gone too far.

“No.” Rose stared him down. “You’re still not getting it.”

“What am I not getting? Please inform me.”

“I _want_ to work with you, you idiot. I wasn’t kidding when I said we worked well together when we’re not taking shots at each other. Our skills are complementary and when you’re not being a total arse we actually get along. Together we could pull bigger jobs than we’d be able to separately and be able to help more people.”

“Hate to burst your bubble but I’m not gonna change my mind and suddenly buy into all your talk about trust and openness that you seem to need. I have re-“

“ _Reasons_ ,” Rose finished for him. “Yeah, heard all about those remember. You keep telling me that you don’t trust and you don’t talk about anything and it’s all because of these mysterious bloody reasons.”

“You wouldn’t understand even if I wanted to tell you,” he claimed, condescension clear on his face again as he looked down at her.

“How would you know?” Rose exclaimed with a bitter laugh. “You don’t know the first thing about me, John, not really. You never thought to ask because you were so intent on avoiding anythin’ like a personal conversation that you never bothered to try and dig past the surface layer to figure out who I am.”

She cocked her head as she looked at him, brushing the hair out of her face. “Because you know what? I don’t talk about my past either. I like to keep it to myself because no one needs to hear my sob story, but what I don’t do is make a big deal out of it like you do. It’s part of me and I can deal with that.” She shook her head, pitying look on her face. “Obviously you can’t. Learn how to answer basic questions without makin’ people feel guilty for asking or makin’ them curious about what you’d like to keep private. Works wonders for making people like you.”

This time it was John who looked like he’d been slapped. He was so used to Rose preaching trust and easily sharing tidbits of her life like that she used to smoke and wanted to travel that he never considered that she was hiding something in her past as well. Maybe she knew what she talking about.

Rose didn’t wait for him to find words to answer her. “Consider that grifter lesson number one for you,” she said, turning her back on him like she was going back towards the kitchen.

John narrowed his eyes at her back, irritation driving him forward when he should have conceded the point. “That what you’ve been doing this whole time. Conning me?” John asked, voice smooth over the rough edges of the anger he was clinging to.

Rose spun around, eyes flashing in warning. “Is that really what you think?”

He shrugged, overly casual in a way designed to further infuriate the thief. “Maybe, who knows. Can never trust a thief or a con artist and you’re both and I don’t trust anyone anyways. Plus you just pointed out that you’re not always entirely truthful.”

“That’s not what I said!”

“’S what it sounded like.”

“No, I told you that there was no reason to make your oh so secretive past a big deal because if you don’t fucking act like it’s this big secret, no one will think twice about it! That’s a long way from saying that I’ve been lying to you.”

John pressed his lips into a hard line and raised his eyebrows at her.

Rose advanced on him, the same look in her eyes that there had been when he compared her to a wolf the other day. “I have put up with you and your attitude because I saw a good man underneath all of your secrets and lack of trust and deflections but I learned a long time ago not to let people put me down like you’re trying to do, so you better think carefully before you continue talking.”

John stood his ground. “Oh that’s good, threatenin’ me and complimenting me in the same sentence. Spot on for inspiring trust, Rose.” His voice was low and dangerous, eyes hard as he met the fire burning in hers. “But the thing is…you’re wrong. I’m not a good man and that’s why I don’t trust and why I don’t talk about my past.

“Trusting the wrong people caused a lot of trouble and I lost people I cared about.” He paused, knowing he should stop talking and knowing that he wouldn’t, not with the anger and frustration still zipping through his veins. “Not that I would expect you to understand.”

Rose’s face hardened and John knew that he had finally stepped over whatever line she had drawn as too far. Too late he remembered what had happened when he’d questioned her loyalty to Jack. The fire in her eyes turned to ice and he desperately wanted to back away from her. Rose was supposed to be golden fire and heat and it was terrifying to see her turn cold.

“Don’t you dare,” she said after a tense few seconds of silence, voice as frigid as her eyes. He could hear the anger snapping just below the surface, the raging water under winter’s ice. “Don’t you _dare_ tell me that I don’t understand loss. You know nothing about me, John Smith. You know nothing about what my life has been like outside of the few days we spent working together and you’d do well to remember that.”

She started to walk away from him before whipping back around to face him. “Actually, I don’t care what you remember. You’re right, you’re not a good man and I’m done trying to find one somewhere underneath all the shit you’ve piled on yourself. And you know what? You’re a coward. It takes courage to open up to people after you’ve been betrayed or after you’ve lost someone. You just shut down and shut everyone out because you refuse to take a risk and you’re going to wither away to nothing if you keep that up.”

“I’ve learned from my mistakes, Rose. And that means working to not make them again, not opening myself up to make them again. That’s just idiocy.” He spoke slowly, like he needed to in order to make sure she understood.

Rose narrowed her eyes, pinning him in place with her fury and her disdain. “I’m done with you, John. I’d wish you good luck figuring out how to be a decent human being but I’m not sure you can pull your head out of your arse long enough to see the way.”

With that parting shot, Rose breezed past him, head held high and not giving him a second look as she grabbed her bag from where they both had dropped them by the door upon entering the flat and walked out the door.

John was left wondering how he’d managed to fuck things up quite so completely with no trace of her presence left expect rumpled sheets that smelled like sex and her and an almost-cold cup of coffee on his kitchen counter.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which John realizes he’s an idiot and Jack agrees with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well...I wasn’t gone for four months this time? That counts for something, right? Anyways, no Starbucks or bees this time, just some abuse of good whiskey and coffee. 
> 
> Alcohol cw for this chapter. Nothing major, no one actually gets drunk but there is talk of it.
> 
> Also a Leverage reference for those of you who like to find those ;D

John sank down onto the couch, not taking his eyes off the door Rose had disappeared through. In just a few minutes he had managed to completely demolish the relationship, both professional and personal, he had been building with Rose and all because he didn’t want to admit that he was willing to build any sort of relationship.

The truth was Rose had gotten closer to him, had gotten to know him better in a handful of days than anyone had in years, even Jack. His friendship with the other man was definitely less contentious than what he and Rose had but it was also more superficial. Jack let him sidestep questions and didn’t push issues because he didn’t want to answer personal questions either.

Rose though, Rose pushed and questioned and argued and John was so unused to anyone trying to get to know him without ulterior motives that he had pushed right back, had lashed out and driven her away.

He wanted to be mad, wanted to be seething at her accusations and aching to pace the flat and maybe throw her coffee mug at a wall. He wasn’t though. He just felt empty, like some part of him had walked out of the door when she had.

It didn’t make sense. She was always just going to be a temporary partner, a fleeting presence in his life. Why should he care that they parted on less than cordial terms? He had his cut of the money and two impressive heists to add to his CV. He did not need Rose or her approval or good opinion. After all, he’d made it very clear to her before she left that he had no desire to continue their partnership or listen to her advice.

John propped his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands. There was no way around the knowledge that he’d fucked up. All the words he’d spat at Rose kept echoing in his head, making him cringe. Looking back it was obvious that Rose had been trying her best to not bring up his past and tiptoe around volatile subjects the entire time they’d been working together. She’d pushed trust because that was something that was both relevant to their situation and important to her and he’d even snapped at her for that, had betrayed the trust she offered him time and time again.

He wasn’t going to magically become an open book just because she looked at him with those big brown eyes but he could see now that he had made things much more difficult than they needed to be. And by failing to realize this until the middle of their argument and then refusing to budge on his point even when he knew he was wrong, he had essentially killed any chance of ever having Rose in his life again.

That thought made the emptiness he was feeling intensify, made him ache. He barked out a strained laugh. Wasn’t this just great? He had been the one adamant that this be a walkaway and here he was, distraught that he was never going to see his blonde partner again.

Jerkily, he stood up and strode towards the kitchen, ignoring her half-full coffee mug still on the counter. Foregoing his own mug as well, he grabbed the coffee pot and snagged the bottle of whiskey from the cupboard and headed back to the couch to drink both of them. There was no way he was going back to his room where the sheets still smelled like her, like _them_ , even if passing out in bed and avoiding reality for the rest of the day sounded like a fine option. The couch would have to do.

John opened the whiskey and poured until the ratio in the coffee pot was somewhere near half coffee, half whiskey. He recapped the liquor and set it on the floor. He inhaled deeply, bracing himself, and then took a drink from the pot. He swallowed the concoction with a grimace. It was caustic and a crime against both good coffee and good whiskey but it was exactly what he deserved this morning.

He took a second sip and hoped that the vile mix would distract him from the ghosts of the words she had said to him as she walked out of his life that still lingered in the air.

John was a quarter of the way through the pot and well into tipsy territory when there was a knock on the door. He was considering the merits of getting up and answering the still unlocked door when the telltale scratching sound of someone picking the lock reached his ears.

There was only one person he knew that would knock before proceeding to pick his lock. John put the coffee pot on the floor and hid his face in his hands. How the hell was he going to explain this mess to Jack? He had no illusions about whose side the man would take. He was closer to Rose and even if he wasn’t, John was pretty sure he was firmly in the wrong here. Not completely and solely at fault, but definitely in the wrong.

John heard Jack curse when he realized that his lockpicking had only succeeded in locking the door instead of unlocking it. “You lovebirds better be decent by the time I get in there,” he called. “On second thought, no need for that. I’ve been trying to see both of you naked for ages so please don’t get dressed on my account.”

There was a small sound of triumph as the lock back and Jack swung the door open. “I brought pastries since I figured the two of you wouldn’t want to lea-” he cut off when he caught sight of John and his dejected position on the couch. A quick glance around the room revealed a nearly empty bottle of whiskey next to a coffee pot that was about two-thirds full and a conspicuous absence of one blonde thief.

“What the hell happened?” Jack asked finally, taking a few steps into the sitting room.

John raised his head just enough to make eye contact with Jack. “I fucked up,” he said bluntly.

Jack took in the hacker’s bloodshot eyes and the way they kept skittering away from him like he was afraid to make eye contact with Jack for too long. “At least you’re admitting it,” Jack said with false cheer. “With the job or with Rose?”

“With Rose. Job went perfectly, told you that already.”

“Just checking,” Jack answered, suppressing a smile at the tiny hint of John’s normal arrogance. He moved to put the bag of pastries on the coffee table and moved to grab a barstool from the kitchen. “Nice touch with the business cards by the way. No idea what “Team TARDIS means or where the two of you came up with those names but the cops are very confused and I can only imagine that the Agency is as well.”

“That was the point,” John answered absently. He’d almost forgotten about the cards and remembering the meaning of the acronym on them and the argument that had led to it being created made the emptiness in his chest ache again.

“I’m guessing they were Rose’s idea? Seemed like something she would come up with.” Jack asked, grabbing the pastries as he sat in the barstool he’d dragged into the sitting room. He pulled a chocolate croissant out and bit into it while waiting for John’s reply.

“Yeah, she came up with them.”

“So, the two of you had a lover’s spat this morning?” Jack queried, broaching the topic at last. He knew both of his friends could be hot tempered and wasn’t too surprised that they were clashing wills again.

“I’m not sure ‘spat’ covers it,” John admitted, running a hand down his face.

Jack raised an inquiring eyebrow, mouth full of flaky pastry again.

“Was more like a knockdown, drag out shouting match,” he explained with a wince.

That earned him a hard stare as Jack swallowed his bite. “Start from the beginning,” he said, voice hard.

John swallowed hard and took a slug of his coffee/whiskey mixture and started telling Jack about the fight. He gave a brief rundown of their previous fights about trust and sharing and working together and then moved onto that morning’s event. He didn’t look at Jack as he outlined the argument and some of the things that each of them had said.

“I knew I’d lost the argument about halfway through,” he said when he’d finished the rundown. He ran a hand back and forth over the top of his head. “I knew that I should concede the point and stop talking but I didn’t. I just kept making it worse and wouldn’t admit that I was wrong at all and she left.”

“You’re an idiot,” Jack said, anger bubbling under his steady tone of voice.

“I know.”

“Like a massive idiot. She was completely right to walk out on your sorry ass.”

“Jack, I _know_.” John stood up, unable to contain his frustration any longer. He started pacing as he talked. “I fucked it all up and I’ve spent all morning moping and sulking and drinking because I’ll probably never be able to fix it. Probably won’t ever see her again and even if I did I don’t know _how_ to apologize or if she’d even let me.”

He took a deep breath, trying to think past the buzz of alcohol in his head and kept talking. “I was the one who kept insisting that I didn’t want to see her again, didn’t want to work with her and I think I knew it was a lie but I fought against it and did this,” he swept his arm out to indicate the empty flat and the shouted words that seemed to float like tangible specters in the air. “I pushed her into leaving and now I can’t stop thinking about how much I wish she was still here because I feel empty and it’s her fault.”

He kept pacing, not noticing the expression on Jack’s face shifting or that he was getting up. “I’m a bloody mess, Jack. I’m half drunk and it’s not even noon and I just want to tell her that I was wro-”

He was cut off by Jack’s fist making contact with his jaw.

John stumbled back a few paces and pressed his fingers to the tender spot that was bound to bruise in a few minutes. He levelled a glare at Jack. “What the hell was that for?”

“Because you really, really deserved it and I needed you to shut up for a minute.”

John couldn’t argue with the logic of either of those reasons.

“Now, you know you were being a right ass to Rose,” Jack started. “You probably were pretty much the entire time you were working together except when you were flirting. It sounds like Rose called you out on it multiple times.”

He waited for John to nod his head in confirmation.

“Apparently though, her yelling at you today got it through that thick skull of yours that you were wrong about at least some of your asshole behavior and your rambling about wanting to fix it and see her again is the only reason you’re only getting punched once.”

John swallowed hard. “That’s fair,” he said finally after meeting Jack’s gaze for a few seconds and seeing nothing but honesty in them.

“Damn right it is. Now, I don’t want to leave when my two best friends are on the outs with each other, not when there’s the potential for the two of you to be friends and having lots of sex instead. You did have lots of sex last night, right?”

John just glared at his friend, not wanting to dignify that with an answer.

“Spoilsport. Anyways, I’d much rather leave at a time where I can imagine gorgeous images of the two of you together instead of having to wonder if you’ve killed each other.”

“Don’t you leave tomorrow?” John asked.

Jack nodded.

“No offense, Jack, but it would probably take a miracle for Rose to even halfway forgive me before tomorrow.”

“I’m somewhat of an expert at miracles,” Jack said with a wink.

“Fake miracles don’t count,” John shot back, knowing exactly what past con Jack was referring to. He’d been roped into helping with that one somewhere along the line. “Even if they are verified by the church. Still fake.”

“Do I need to call you a spoilsport again?”

“Seriously Jack, I don’t think you can manage to orchestrate a reconciliation between me and Rose before you leave.”

“I think the two of you just need to have it out again and you’re probably going to need to grovel. A lot. Lots of groveling. But I think it can happen.”

John just looked at him skeptically.

“What? Rose is stubborn but she does tend to listen if you insist upon it. She’s forgiving, she might give you another chance.”

“I insulted her in just about every manner possible and she sounded like her mind was made up when she said she was done with me,” John argued, unable to resist playing devil’s advocate even though he desperately hoped that Jack was right.

“Do you want to give up without even trying?”

“No,” John admitted grudgingly.

“That’s settled then,” Jack said brushing his hands against each other.

“What exactly is settled?”

“That you’re going to talk to Rose and beg forgiveness for being an ass and picking fights with her all the time.”

“She’s not going to let me if I just show up at her place. Which I don’t even know where said flat is, actually.” John pointed out.

“Well, I’m about to go take my best friend some pastries and probably listen to her yell and comfort her since she’s likely upset because her partner was an absolute dick to her. If I happen to be followed by a certain hacker, it’s not my fault that I led him straight to her door.”

Said hacker rolled his eyes. “You actually think this will work? Me showing up unannounced and trying to convince her that I know I was wrong?”

“Maybe,” Jack answered in an overly cheerful voice. “I live in eternal hope.”

John narrowed his eyes. “Just how likely do you think this plan is to work?”

“Umm, 65%? Maybe 60?”

“Encouraging,” he said dryly.

“But the odds are still in your favor so that’s good.”

“Might as well get it over with,” John decided. He moved over to the couch and picked up the liquor bottle and coffee pot and took them back to the kitchen. He set them on the counter and then walked towards the door and picked his leather jacket up from where it had been discarded in the entryway the previous night.

“Alright, give me at least fifteen minutes with her before you come in,” Jack said, raking a critical eye over John. “I’ll clear out within a few minutes once you do come in so that the two of you can work things out on your own.”

John nodded sharply and tugged on the lapels of his jacket. He wanted another sip of the whiskey he’d left on the counter but his head was almost clear again and he needed it to stay that way if he was going to face Rose.

Plus, there wasn’t much left and he was going to need every drop of it later if Rose told him to piss off as she was likely to do.

 _Here goes nothing_ , he thought as he followed Jack out the door, locking it behind him. This visit was likely going to save him or destroy him and it was all in the hands of the big, bad wolf.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is an argument, an apology, and a seed of hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why yes this is another update only a couple days after the last one! We're edging closer to the light at the end of the tunnel and, incidentally, probably close to the end of this particular fic. (but don't worry, i have more plans for these two beyond this fic if you're not ready to let go of them)

Since Jack wouldn’t share his pastries anymore, claiming they were now for Rose only, John insisted on stopping to grab food. He went in the first open chippy he found. Greasy food was just what he needed to soak up the rest of the alcohol in his system. He wasn’t going to face Rose while still tipsy, he was going to need all of his wits about him.

By the time they reached Rose’s building John had a clear head again and was still completely at a loss as to how to apologize for his behavior.

“Her flat number is 4B,” Jack said, interrupting his thoughts. “Remember, don’t come up for at least twenty minutes. I want some time to talk to her first. Try and use some of that time to figure out what you want to say to her.”

Before John could answer Jack pulled the door to the building open and slipped inside, leaving John alone with his thoughts.

The conman took the stairs up to Rose’s floor. He needed the extra time to think himself, to figure out how he was going to play this interaction. His main goal now was reconciling his two friends before he left the country and it was not going to be easy with how stubborn they both were. He knew Rose would probably be fuming and he needed to hopefully calm her down a bit before John came up.

Jack took a deep breath and knocked on Rose’s door. After a minute of no response he called out.

“Rose, it’s me and if you don’t open the door I’ll just pick the locks, I know how yours work.” He’d helped pick out and install the locks last year. They were pick resistant but he could still pop them open with about a minute’s work since he knew the model and had practiced.

“Go away Jack, I don’t want company,” came her muffled reply. “I can just lock it again as soon as you pick it so that won’t work.”

“I could also get in the window,” he mused, “but then you wouldn’t get the pastries I brought for you and there’s at least one chocolate croissant left.”

He could practically hear her considering letting him in just to get the pastry. 

“Fine, but I warned you,” she said finally.

The locks clicked open and Rose opened the door to a widely smiling Jack holding a paper bag in front of him. 

Rose was not smiling and Jack could see how tense she was in the stiff way she was moving as she grabbed for the bag and walked towards the kitchen.

“Hello to you too,” Jack said as he closed the door behind him without locking it.

“Warned you. Not much for company right now,” Rose said by way of explanation as she bit into the chocolate croissant she’d dug out of the bag.

“Nice job with the business card by the way,” Jack commented offhandedly as he grabbed another pastry for himself. “It’s completely thrown off the police and probably the Agency as well.”

Rose narrowed her eyes at her friend. “How did you know the card was my idea?”

“Seems like something you would come up with,” he answered. “Plus I might have stopped by John’s earlier this morning expecting to find both of you there.”

“Well he did a brilliant job of running me off this morning as I’m sure he told you,” Rose spat, spine stiffening. “Probably gloated about it.”

Jack debated telling her that John had been miserable and on his way to drinking himself into a stupor when he’d shown up at his door but he didn’t think Rose would believe him and John needed to speak for himself.

“There was no gloating involved,” he finally said. “He told me that you two had a fight and gave me a rundown of it. I didn’t stay long, wanted to come check on you and bring you chocolate and hear your side of the story.”

“Don’t know why you’d bother, John made it clear that I’m not to be trusted,” Rose said, bitterness evident in every word.

Jack winced. He knew that trust, or the lack of it, had been the main issue between John and Rose while they were working together. He also knew that trust was a major thing to Rose, personally as well as professionally. In the years he’d known her, Rose had made it clear many times that she was fine with lying during a con and would run game on a mark without the slightest hesitation or hint of remorse but she tried to always be honest in everything else. She wasn’t an open book and she didn’t talk about her past much but from what Jack had gathered her trust had been abused multiple times but she kept giving it, kept making sure that her friends knew they could trust her. To be so blatantly told that she wasn’t trusted because of who she was and in spite everything she’d done with John had probably been an almost devastating blow for her.

If Jack was remembering John’s run down correctly, that accusation had been near the end of the argument. His lack of trust had been the undercurrent of the whole fiasco and him blaming her for it had been one of the final nails in his coffin.

Jack shook his head, John was going to have his work cut out to get Rose’s forgiveness on that front.

“He’s an idiot, Rose, and you know that I trust you. Talk to me.”

“He’s a bastard,” she huffed, moving to her living room and collapsing into her armchair.

“You’ve said that before and you still worked with him,” Jack pointed out, making himself comfortable on the couch.

“Because I needed to,” she protested.

“Didn’t need to sleep with him.”

Rose’s cheeks turned pink. “That has nothing to do with anythin’.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yes. We had no problems with that aspect of our partnership. It was him being an arse after the sex and any time we weren’t in bed or in the middle of a heist that was a problem.”

“You ready to tell me your version of the argument then?” Jack pushed.

“What more is there to tell? I’m sure he told you that he pointblank refused to even consider working with me again. And how I pointed out how exhausting it was to have a conversation with him because he bloody shuts down whenever something even touches on the personal. It’s like trying to pick my way through a minefield and I was exhausted, Jack.” Rose exclaimed.

“Yeah, he doesn’t like talking about himself much,” Jack agreed.

“And he kept citing those mysterious ‘reasons’ of his like he doesn’t even realize he’s using them as really ineffective and annoying armor,” Rose continued. “An’ he kept twisting my words and throwing ‘em back in my face and he made it seem like it was completely my fault that he couldn’t trust me when he just has some aversion to the feeling.”

Jack let her words sink in a bit, mulling them over. They mostly matched up with the account John had given him but there was something he was curious about. “You know, I thought you were going to be a lot angrier when I got here.”

“I am angry but I’m not angry at you and mostly I just hurt. Him saying those things _hurt_ , Jack, especially because he said them specifically to hurt me.” Rose’s face twisted up as she talked and Jack could see that her bitten off fingernails were biting into her palms as she tried to keep control over herself.

Her eyes were bright with moisture when they met his. “I thought me and him… I thought we had something,” she admitted. “Thought we could be something great if he’d just give it a chance.”

She choked out a bitter laugh. “Got that one all wrong, didn’t I? My taste in men’s ‘bout as bad as my cooking.”

“Your cooking is much worse,” Jack said dryly. He got up and walked over to her chair and crouched down in front of her.

“Look at me, Rose,” he said, putting his hand on her knee. “You were right to call him out on his bullshit, he’s gotten away with it for too long. He probably knew you were right too, which made him lash out.”

“Doesn’t mean he’s not an arse.”

“Of the highest degree,” Jack agreed. “And nothing can justify him hurting you like this. If I’d talked to you first I probably would have punched him harder.”

Rose let out a watery giggle. “You didn’t really punch him, did you?”

“I did. He should be sporting a nice bruise on his jaw now,” Jack said, pride tinging his words.

“Oh my god, Jack!”

“Do you think I shouldn’t have?”

“God no. The prick deserved it, I’m just surprised is all.”

“For what it’s worth, and it might not be worth much, but I thought the two of you could be something great too,” Jack commented. “My two best friends and two of the most talented people I’ve had the pleasure of working with on any side of the law, I thought it was a perfect match but I could never find a good reason for getting the two of you in the same room.

Then I saw the two of you together and you pulled off one of the greatest heists I’ve ever heard of in a very limited time frame and now a bank robbery. That chemistry is definitely there.”

“Doesn’t matter now. Chemistry isn’t enough and he’s not gonna apologize. Don’t know if I’d forgive him even if he did,” Rose said.

Jack mentally readjusted his estimate of this plan being a success to around 40 to 45 percent and silently apologized to John for not being able to warn him about the new odds that were decidedly not in his favor.  “You sure you couldn’t still build something with him if you can get him to see the light?”

“I’m trusting Jack, not stupid,” Rose retorted. “He’s cut me down twice and I’m not going to put myself out there again just so he can do it a third time. He made it clear that he was not willing to change anything about to accommodate me or meet me halfway and I made it clear when I walked out that I was done with him.”

Jack opened his mouth to try and see if there were any circumstances in which she’d give the wanker he unfortunately considered a friend another chance but he was cut off by a knock on the door.

He glanced down at his watch and cursed under his breath when he realized that his twenty minutes were up. He got to his feet and started moving towards the door, closely followed by Rose who was muttering something about only having company when she didn’t want it.

Before they reached the door, it swung open revealing John standing nervously in the hallway.

“Door was unlocked,” he said sheepishly, trying on a small smile in the face of the growing fury evident in Rose’s expression.

“What the hell are you doing here? And how did you even know where I lived?” Rose demanded.

John took one look at the panicked look on Jack’s face and made up an alternate excuse than following Jack. “You really think I can hack into bank servers but not find your address?”

Rose’s eyes narrowed and he winced. Sarcasm probably hadn’t been his best opening volley.

“Well you’ve made you point and you can leave,” Rose said, crossing her arms in front of her. “Thought you made it perfectly obvious earlier that you wanted nothing more to do with me.”

He mirrored her, crossing his arms as well. “I came to apologize, Rose.”

Rose snorted in derision. “Yeah right. You’re constitutionally incapable of admitting you’re wrong. Ever. So you can quit your gloating about being right about us not being a good team and get the hell out of my flat.”

“I’m not gloating! And I was wrong, about that and a lot of other things.” 

Frustration was already seeping into John’s tone and Jack had a feeling this conversation was about to explode. Possibly on a nuclear scale. He really didn’t need to be here to watch it crash and burn so while his two friends were busy glaring at each other he slipped out the door. He’d check on them later.

“Leave,” Rose said flatly.

“No, not until you’ve heard what I have to say.”

“You said your piece this morning. Got the message loud and clear.”

“I was being an arse this morning,” John said.

“Damn right you were.”

“I’ve been an arse to you most of the time we’ve known each other,” he continued, taking a few steps forward so he was actually inside her flat instead of the hallway.

“Glad to see you’ve at least managed to see that much,” Rose shot back acidly. “Get to that conclusion yourself or did Jack’s punch knock some sense into you?” Her eyes dropped to the bruise that was purpling on his jaw.

“I’m capable of thinking for myself, thanks,” he replied testily, rubbing fingers over the sore spot.

“Could’ve fooled me. Thought your ‘reasons’ did all of your thinking for you.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Oh, you’re interested in being fair now?” Rose’s voice was bordering on shrill as she looked at him in disbelief. “That’s a change from this morning.”

John tried to keep his voice steady and not let her draw him into another shouting match. “I was scared this morning, Rose. Terrified. You were already closer than I’d let anyone be in ages and I panicked and said a lot things I didn’t mean.”

“Unbelievable, you’re still making excuses!” Rose threw her arms in the air and spun around, stalking towards the kitchen.

John made to follow her but she turned suddenly and advanced on him. “You meant every word you said this morning, John. On some level, you meant them and I’m not okay with that. I’m _furious_ and then you have the nerve to show up here and say you’re apologizing without ever actually apologizing? You’re such a bastard!” She slapped a palm into his chest in time with the last word of her sentence and he let the impact rock him back on his heels.

“Rose,” he started, trying to placate her so she’d actually listen to his apology. “I am sorry about how I beha-”

A door slamming open in the hallway cut him off and suddenly someone else was yelling. “Keep it down over there! I don’t need to hear your fucking row when I’m trying to sleep. Have some respect.”

Rose stalked past John to get to the door, vibrating with anger as she faced down her next door neighbor. “Oi! If I have to listen to you having sex with prozzies twice a week while I’m trying to sleep then you can listen to me havin’ a domestic once. Ta.” She shot him one of her wolfish smiles and slammed the door shut.

“Now, where were we? False apologies, yeah?” Rose snapped as she faced John again.

John took a deep breath, keeping his own temper in check as she kept sniping at him. “I’m serious about apologizing, Rose. I made loads of mistakes this morning and while we were working together and you’re right about me not admitting I’m wrong very often or apologizing very often. You were right about a lot of things. Got me pegged, you do. But you deserve an apology because I was out of line today.”

“I’m not gonna forgive you just because you say I was right or because I’m somehow _special_ for earning an apology,” Rose said.

“I already told you that I was scared. I know it’s just an excuse but it’s also the truth. I was scared of how close I’d already let you get and scared of how much closer I wanted you, of the fact that I wanted you to stay and didn’t know how to deal with that.” John broke eye contact with Rose and started pacing, unable to continue talking when she was still glaring holes in him. “So I pushed and I lashed out because I’m an idiot and you just kept saying things that proved how much you saw right through me and I… I regretted everything the second you walked out of the door.”

He stopped and looked at her again, meeting her fiery gaze once more as he tried to project as much honesty as he could. “I apologize for the things I’ve said that hurt you and for the way I’ve behaved in the past. It was unacceptable on my part and I realize that now.”

Rose muttered something under her breath and brushed past him as she stomped into the living room. She flopped down in her chair again and watched as John slowly followed her into the room, somehow looking for all the world like a lost puppy.

“The thing is John, I’m not sure you’re apologizing because you feel like you should or because you actually want to.” Rose said after a moment’s pause. She sounded resigned, like her anger had drained away and left her exhausted and bitter instead.

“I wouldn’t apologize if I didn’t mean it. I said it in anger earlier this morning but I meant it when I said I don’t lie. I promise I didn’t come here to manipulate you or anythin’ like that. I came here to lay it all on the line and tell you I was sorry and that I don’t want this to be the last time I ever see you.” John said, awkwardly tugging at the sleeves of his jacket and stealing glances at Rose to see if he was getting through to her.

“But why? You sounded like you wanted nothing to do with me earlier, like you weren’t willing to even try to meet me halfway to try and make whatever this is that we have work.”

“I knew you were right about me and how I kept everyone out, how I used my past as a shield to avoid letting people in instead of trying to move past it. I realized it about halfway through our fight and it wasn’t a comfortable realization. I lashed out and insulted you more and refused to listen to you at the time but I knew you were right and I also knew that my flat felt empty without you there even though it had never felt empty before,” John admitted, desperate for her to realize that he really wanted to try again with her. “I thought a lot about it after you left and when Jack showed up I was well on my way to getting drunk before noon and it was because I knew I had fucked up the best thing that had happened to me in years.”

“John…” Rose started.

John swallowed hard and shook his head, needing to continue. “I won’t lie, before our argument I wasn’t willing to consider working with you further because I hadn’t come to terms with the fact that working alone wasn’t always the best option. I hadn’t come to terms with the knowledge that I thoroughly enjoyed working with you and didn’t want it to be a walkaway at all. So I pretended like I was ready to just let you leave and did my best to make you leave and then once you did I knew it was a mistake.

“I can’t promise that I can change my habits right away and I’m never going to be able to just talk about my past easily but I can try to be better. I want to keep working with you, Rose. You’re the most talented thief I’ve ever seen and you’re a fantastic person and I want to see what we can accomplish together, what we can be. For that chance I can learn to tell you that I love travelling and have done a lot of it and that I’ve never smoked in my life except a cigarette I snuck when I was fourteen that made me choke.” He stopped when he heard a small giggle from Rose and gave her a hopeful look. “I know that I did so much wrong and I can’t take it back and I don’t deserve you forgiving me or at least agreeing to try and forgive me and moving past this but I want a second second chance with you.”

He stopped talking and just looked at her, holding his breath. It was probably the most he’d said in one go in years but he was positive that she was worth it. He’d just put his fate in her hands but she didn’t look like the big Bad Wolf anymore. She looked like the woman he’d taken to bed, like the woman he wanted to get to know better. He dared to start hoping that she would give him the chance to redeem himself and start anew.

Rose’s head was in turmoil. This was the last thing she had expected when John had showed up at her door. She figured he’d come to rekindle the argument or something, not to apologize or beg forgiveness. And he seemed to be sincere about his pleas for a second chance, or a second second chance as he put it since she’d given him his first second chance after the police box fiasco.

She wanted to forgive him but his words from that morning were still ringing in her head and the barbs were still in her skin and she didn’t know that she could let it go yet.

“I believe you, John,” she said finally.

She saw hope dawn on his face and felt a pang of remorse that she was about to crush it. “The thing is, I don’t know what I want to do yet. I don’t know if I can forgive you yet. I’m still mad from this morning and you hurt me.”

“Rose, I-,” John started to try and apologize again but Rose put up a hand to silence him.

“Just hear me out now. I need some time to think about it. Just give me a little bit of time to cool off and figure out what I want to do.”

“However much time you need,” he agreed readily. This meant he had a chance and that was as good as gold to him, better really.

“I’ll drop by yours later today and let you know what I’ve decided. I know Jack wants to be informed of it we work things out or not before he leaves so I can’t take ages,” Rose said with a wry smile.

A puzzled look came over John’s face as he glanced around the room. “Where did Jack disappear to?”

“Oh, he slipped out early in the fight. Probably didn’t want to get dragged into it.”

“Ah. Right.”

“So, is me dropping by later alright?” She asked.

“Of course,” he said. John took a step back and then rubbed at the top of his head for a moment. “I’ll just, um, go then. I’ll see you later. Thanks for listening.”

With that he practically fled out the door, Rose’s call of goodbye barely registering with him as he closed the door to her flat.

He could do this, he thought. He could survive waiting for Rose to make up her mind. For her, he could handle waiting.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stress baking, day drinking, and the end of our story. For now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my god, do you see that ending number up there?? after a year and a half (at least) I'm about to say goodbye to this story. There is still an epilogue to come after this so stay tuned. (Also a sequel in the works because I may be about done with Watch it Burn but I'm not done with my two favorite idiots. Not by a long shot) Thanks so much to all of you who have stuck with me through this story and my sporadic updates! Y'all are the best ♥

When John returned to his flat he immediately headed to the kitchen. He finally picked up the cup of coffee that Rose had left on the counter and poured it down the drain before sticking the mug in the dishwasher.

He contemplated pouring out the coffee/whiskey concoction he had made earlier in the day but decided that he really didn’t want to waste the alcohol in the highly likely case that Rose didn’t forgive him or agree to try again. He stuck the whole coffee pot in the refrigerator before turning around and resting his palms on the counter, hanging his head.

This waiting was going to be torture. He was already imagining every single way Rose could tell him that she had decided that no, this wasn’t going to work, that she couldn’t forgive him after what he said. Her voice echoed in his head with tones ranging from apologetic to the cold fury and ice that he’d pushed her to at the end of their argument.

John shook his head and pushed himself back upright. He would just do what he always did when he was worrying at an impossible problem and needed to clear his head.

He turned on the oven and went to go take stock of his ingredients.

He always kept baking basics on hand specifically for times like this. He had learned how to bake when he was a teenager and had picked it back up in his adult life, finding that it was an excellent way to relieve stress and think through whatever was bothering him. It gave him something to do with his hands and an outlet other than his computers and hacking for his creativity and there was a tangible result at the end of his labors that settled his soul in some odd way.

John loved tinkering with old recipes and twisting them into something new or starting completely from scratch to see if he could come up with something on his own. He had a whole folder on his hard drive of new recipes that he wanted to try.

Today though he wanted an old favorite – chocolate banana cake. He didn’t use a recipe for it anymore, just put it together with the ease of practice and the confidence it had given him. John started mixing the butter and sugar and eggs together and willed his mind to clear. Rose would get here when she got here and there was nothing he could do until then but bake.

\----------

Rose stared at the door of her flat for a few minutes after John disappeared. She had in no way expected John to show up at her flat and she wouldn't have bet anything on him actually apologizing. Against all odds though, he had shown up and he’d apologized and had actually sounded sincere.

She didn’t know what to make of it.

Part of her really wanted to tell him that it was all okay and that she wanted to give it another shot but there was an equally large part of her that reminded her of how much he’d hurt her and wanted to just tell John to go to hell.

Sighing, she got up from her chair and padded towards the kitchen, feet making no noise on the hardwood. Rummaging around in the fridge, she found the half empty bottle of wine she was looking for and poured a glass. It was still before noon but she couldn’t care less. She took the wine into the living room and sank into her chair once more.

The man was so frustrating! He blew hot and cold and refused to share anything. He could get her riled up in a matter of seconds, had trust issues and an arrogant streak a mile wide. He drove her absolutely up the wall with his stubbornness and bullshit.

But he was also kind underneath it all, the type of person who secretly gave away money to people in need and woke her up from sleeping on a table so that she wouldn’t have a crick in her neck. He was reliable when it came down to it and he certainly wasn’t the only one who was stubborn or arrogant. Rose was self-aware enough to know that she could be both of those things as well. It was their matched stubbornness that landed them in this mess in the first place! He drove her crazy, yes, but there was also something about him that kept drawing her close, drawing her back, something beyond the simmering sexual tension that seemed to be ever-present between the two of them, although that was a factor too.

And then there was the fact that he’d actually shown up to her flat and apologized. Rose knew she had been goading him and he had refused to start another argument. There were a few times where it looked like he wanted to but he had refrained, focusing on the apology instead. That had to mean _something_ , right?

Rose took a gulp of her wine. Without him right in front of her and his apparently sincere apology still ringing in her ears, she was finding it difficult to stay angry with him. She was still upset, the things he’d said in their argument and the way he’d acted that had led up to the argument she still found unacceptable, but if he was really willing to try and change and adjust and work with her, maybe they could move past it all together.

Maybe forgive and not forget, let him know that he was on thin ice if she came back and gave it another shot. They would need to talk about it and lay out their separate expectations and figure out where they were going to go from here but Rose was growing more optimistic by the minute that it could work. They could work.

She downed the rest of her wine and headed towards her bathroom for her second shower of the day. Her mind was made up but she needed to finish cooling off so she wouldn’t start yelling at John the moment she was face to face with him again.

Plus, he deserved to sweat it out a bit, she thought with a smirk.

\----------

John was indeed sweating it out. He’d taken his cake out of the oven and was waiting for it to cool so he could ice it. The cookie dough he was currently making up was bearing the brunt of his worry as he tried to pound it into submission. It had been three hours since he left Rose’s flat and she hadn’t shown up yet.

There was a voice in the back of his mind that kept telling him that she was never going to show up, that she wasn’t going to forgive him. Frankly he agreed that he probably didn’t deserve to be forgiven for most of what he’d said but it was Rose and if anyone was going to give him another chance to make things better, it was her.

The waiting though, the waiting and worrying was killing him. Slowly.

He traded the bowl of cookie dough for his bowl of icing and started spreading it carefully over the cake, deeming it cool enough finally.

He could make it through this, just had to keep busy.

Twenty minutes later, John was taking the cookie dough out of the fridge to start putting it on baking sheets for the oven when there was a knock at the door.

He almost dropped the bowl in his haste to get to the door but it swung open before he could even make it out of the kitchen though.

John froze when he caught sight of Rose standing just on the other side of his threshold tugging nervously at the strings of the pink hoodie she was wearing.

“The door was unlocked,” she said, gesturing at the open door. “Can I come in?”

Rose was a little unsure of her welcome and nervous about the conversation to come. He had apologized, yes, but as she sat in her flat and tried to figure out exactly what she wanted to say, she had started second guessing everything. For all she knew John could have completely changed his mind since he left her flat. It left her feeling unsure and vulnerable and she hated it.

“Please,” he said.

Rose stepped inside and closed the door behind her. The fading smell of warm chocolate greeted her and she made a small noise of appreciation. “It smells wonderful in here. Were you making something?”

To her delight John’s ears turned pink at the question.

“Was doin’ some baking,” he mumbled. He waved back towards the kitchen behind him. “There’s a chocolate banana cake that’s ready if you want a piece.”

Rose grinned. “Like I’m going to say no to chocolate! I’d love a slice.”

Silence reigned as he cut two slices out of the recently frosted cake and served them. Plates in hand, John led the way back to the living room to sit down.

The quiet was oppressive. Rose couldn’t find the words she wanted to start the conversation that they needed to have and with every second that passed it seemed more and more difficult to break the silence.

John could feel his heart racing as they settled onto opposite ends of the couch. He wanted to hope that she came bearing good news since she wasn’t just telling him outright that she couldn’t forgive him but he didn’t want to hope and just have it crushed.

Rose took her first bite of cake and moaned around the fork when it hit her tongue.

John twitched, remembering hearing that sound in a much different setting.

“Oh my god, John, this is delicious!”

“Thanks. It’s one of my favorite recipes.” He considered for a moment and then continued, trying to prove to her that he was willing to be more open about himself. “Baking’s a hobby of mine. Been doing it for years.”

There was also the fact that he had wanted to tell Rose these tidbits ever since he met her and had tamped it down because he was afraid of her getting too close. It was freeing and terrifying to let himself share.

“I can tell. If this cake is any indication, you’re a brilliant baker.” She smiled at him before putting another bite in her mouth.

Silence fell again as they both ate their cake. Rose took her last bite of cake and put her plate down on the coffee table. John stilled as she turned her gaze on him, suddenly completely serious, her playful façade gone.

She sighed. “Guess I should stop avoiding the elephant in the room, yeah?” She raised her hand to her mouth and chewed on the side of her nail.

John nodded as he swallowed his mouthful of cake and then set his plate on the table as well. He gave Rose an expectant look, waiting for her to start talking and deliver her judgement and his fate.

“The thing is, John, I can’t just forget about what’s happened. We can’t forget what’s happened. It’s made an impact on us both and we can’t just go on ahead like it never happened.” Rose was babbling, she knew she was. It’s what happened when she was nervous. During cons she was in control and playing someone other than herself and this never happened but when she had to talk about her own emotions and have a conversation that would impact her life in a big way she was a giant ball of nerves.

John could feel his heart sinking as she talked about not being able to just move past what had happened. He knew his face probably was broadcasting his emotions but he couldn’t summon up the energy to hide.

He turned his face towards the table instead of her. “Right, okay. That’s it then, is it?” he said, dejected.

Rose glanced up from where she was tugging at her sleeves and read John’s expression and body language in an instant. She was doing a rubbish job of trying to explain things so far.

“John, no. Look at me.” He didn’t turn so Rose reached out a hand and rested it on his knee. “Please look at me.”

Reluctantly he faced her again, sucking in a deep breath. This was going to hurt so much more than he had expected. He had a fleeting thought that he was glad he hadn’t tossed the coffee/whiskey mixture from that morning.

“What I’m trying to say and failing miserably at is that I want to work with you again. I want to give _us_ another shot but we’re going to have to talk about what’s happened and what we both need and expect to make this work. If we just dive in headfirst we’re just gonna end up right back here.”

Despite himself John could feel hope blooming in his chest again. “Are you saying…” he trailed off, unable to talk around the lump in his throat.

A grin spread over Rose’s face. “Yeah, I am. As long as you’re okay with talking things out here at the beginning, I forgive you and I want to see what else we can accomplish together.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

The smile that dawned on his face was wild and exuberant and it came to life in a laugh. He reached out and gripped her shoulders. “Thank you, Rose Tyler. I can’t promise I’ll be good at talking like you want but I’m willing to give it a shot. I want to see what we can do together, too.”

Rose’s eyes flicked down to his lips and her expression shifted into a wicked smirk. “What we can do together, huh? I might have a few ideas.”

John let out a low growl, one hand moving from her shoulder down to her waist. “I have more than a few.”

“Prove it,” Rose whispered.

John moved closer and was about to bring his lips down on hers when he stopped. “We’re not still fighting are we?”

“What?” Rose asked, completely bewildered.

“Last time I tried to kiss you and we were arguing I thought you were going to rip my throat out.”

“Oh my god, John, just shut up and kiss me!”

“Your wish is my command,” he growled just before brushing his lips across hers in a gentle caress, a thank you and a wish for a bright future all in one.

At least that’s what it was at first. They couldn’t tame the heat that blazed between them for long and soon the sparks turned to flames. John had the fleeting thought that the two of them could set the world ablaze but he didn’t care. He had Rose and if it came down to it, he’d be content to sit with her hand in his and watch it burn.


	18. Epilogue

John and Rose didn’t have plans for the evening. They were just lounging on the sofa, tangled around each other and relaxing after a lengthy discussion to figure their fledgling relationship out and a couple pleasurable diversions. John was content to remain there for as long as possible, potentially forever, but Rose reminded him that they were supposed to let Jack know how things had gone down. Their friend practically squealed when they told him that they had worked it out and told them that he would be there in thirty minutes.

Reluctantly they got up and started making themselves and the flat presentable. As expected, Jack was insufferably smug about the two of them officially getting together in both a personal and professional relationship. John got the distinct feeling that Jack would gloat about bringing them together for as long as they were together and since John had no plans of ever letting Rose slip through his fingers again, he resigned himself to a lifetime of Jack's smugness.

Jack finally left after giving them both long hugs, instructions to think of him often paired with a salacious wink, and a promise that he would find a way to keep in contact with both of them.

When the door closed behind the conman Rose sauntered up to John and looped her arms around his neck. She raised an eyebrow, gave him the seductive, little smirk that had been driving him crazy since the night he met her “So then, _Doctor_ , what are our plans now that it’s just us two criminals against the world?”

“The Doctor and Rose Tyler,” he mused, enjoying the way it slipped off his tongue. “The world better watch out.”

“Oi, I have a codename too!” Rose said in mock offence, affecting a pout. Her fingers trailed against the nape of John’s neck causing him to shiver.

“Don’t think I’m likely to forget that anytime soon. Remember what the Bad Wolf looks like a bit too well for comfort, me. She’s usually plotting to rip my throat out.”

“Hmm, true,” Rose granted. “Think she might be changing her tune though. There are better uses for her teeth, especially when your throat is involved.”

“You know what I think?” John asked, slipping his hands from Rose’s hips to her bum. “I think the world is gonna have to wait a while. I’m not planning on letting you out of this flat for at least twenty-four hours,” he growled, moving to rest his forehead against hers.

“That sounds promising.” Her breath ghosted against his lips.

“Believe me, it’s a promise,” he replied darkly before closing the gap between them, sealing the promise with a kiss.

The next time they left the flat was two days later and it was so Rose could pack her things. The day after that, John and Rose hopped a plane to Spain. There was a bank in Barcelona with subpar security and a reputation of being untouchable that was practically an engraved invitation to the two of them.

Team TARDIS was officially in business two weeks later when workers came to open the bank in the morning and found a neat, white business card taped to the door.

The front of the card featured an embossed blue police box and the words Team TARDIS in block font. On the back of the card, written in flowing gold script are the names that would be known the world over by the end of the year – “The Doctor and the Bad Wolf.”

\----------

About the same time John and Rose made it back to their hotel, giddy from their successful heist, a man in London completed a heist of his own. Unlike theirs it would go unsigned and would go unnoticed for some time to come.

The blonde man in a well-tailored suit slipped out of the police evidence locker, not sparing a glance for the DI face down at the desk with a broken neck. The thief was swallowed by the shadows as soon as he exited the building, the darkness hiding the dangerous smirk playing over his face as he patted the pocket that held his prize.

It was unassuming, the item he’d gone through so much trouble to obtain - just a small piece of paper, a business card with a cryptic message on it, the only clue in an unsolved bank robbery. The missing money didn’t interest him but whoever had perpetrated this particular heist had taken something of his specifically and he wanted to know who had his information and who had discovered his cleanest alias.

He _liked_ Harold Saxon and he’d rather not have to completely discard the identity if he could help it. He even had a rather promising political career. Funny how people could always be counted upon to vote criminals into positions of power.

He bared his teeth. Once he found this “Doctor” and “Bad Wolf” he was going to make them sing like little birds and tell them everything they knew. Who they were, who they were working for, the whole nine yards. They were not going to ruin his carefully laid plans by sheer luck. He was rather looking forward to the experience of breaking them, truth be told. He didn’t care how long it took him to find these two upstart criminals, he would burn the world down and wade through its ashes to capture them if that’s what it required. One day, one way or another, they were going to answer to their Master.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to thank all of you so much for being so supportive and incredible as I wrote this fic. It's been a wild ride: a year and a half (ish), 50k words from what was originally a one-shot, and very sporadic updating from me. You all are champs and just thank you so much!
> 
> This story has ended but I'm nowhere near done with my two favorite idiots yet. So, stay tuned for the start of the sequel sometime in the near future!


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